Shelter Me
by SoundedSummer
Summary: Steve had everything he ever wanted... and then lost it when they pulled him out of the Ice. When Loki, and Thor, show up, Steve will burn the world to find the answers he wants. Harry Potter has always known who he is. He is the spitting image of his father, has his mother's eyes, and he likes it that way. Until he suddenly isn't.
1. Chapter 1

**AN-This is the reposted, redone, and hopefully remastered version of A Sky Full of Stars. This is still a response to the challenge from njchrispatrick.**

**Warnings: Slash, M-Preg, and others will be added as they apply. **

**Disclaimer-I own nothing. No copyright infringement is intended nor implied, and no profit of any kind is being made on this work. **

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><p><strong>Chapter One<strong>

Loki couldn't hold back a smirk as he looked at the two intertwined figures in the bed. One was Thor, long blonde hair strewn across the pillow. His mouth was open and he was snoring slightly. Muscled arms were wrapped around the other figure, hugging him close to his strapping, hair-covered chest. The other figure was another man, large though not as large as Thor, with slightly darker blonde hair and a clean-shaven face. He seemed more clean-cut than the rugged Thor, his body smooth and his hair short.

He was not what Loki expected, in one of Thor's companions.

The Trickster god walked to the side of the bed, sitting down on it but being careful not to wake the men. One eyebrow rose as Thor murmured something in his sleep and hugged the other man closer to himself, bearded chin resting on top of his head. Loki shook his head and smiled slightly at his brother. While Thor may have often been the brutish, tactless oaf, when he cared for someone he was very loving to them. And Thor obviously loved this man, especially considering that he had broken his own father's commands to see him.

One pale hand moved to rest against the chiseled abs of Thor's bed-mate. The man stirred very slightly so Loki quickly dropped a sleeping spell over him, letting the man settle down. Then Loki used the hand on the man's stomach to reach his magic inward, to feel within. He could feel Thor's essence within the man, the Thunder God's fertile seed still coating the man's insides.

Well, didn't that just give him a wealth of possibilities?

Loki looked over the man's massive shoulders to watch his brother's face. In sleep his brother looked so peaceful, so innocent. While many in Asgard believed that Loki was jealous of and disliked his brother, especially the Warrior's Three, it was not so. Yes he hated Thor's arrogance, and was jealous of their father's favoritism, but Thor was his brother, his oldest companion. He could not hate Thor.

Loki closed his eyes, feeling the magic pour from him into Thor's companion. It felt cold, but not the harsh cold of winter; it was the chill of an autumn breeze, refreshing and light. It filled the man before him, shaping him, changing him within. Loki's own natural shape shifting abilities were what allowed the impossible to become real.

The man moved slightly in his sleep, thick eyebrows furrowing at the strange sensation that he no doubt felt even through the spell. But Loki ignored it as his work bore fruit. The man's body began to change as Thor's seed latched onto him, his internal passages shifting to accommodate its new attachment.

Loki's magic withdrew when its task was complete and he breathed heavily, his magic nearly exhausted from the strain. But he was successful, and for that he smiled. One day Loki would tell his brother of what he had done, perhaps get to receive gratitude and praise for once instead of scorn and ridicule. However, for now he would let the men rest. After all, it was not every day that two men, a mortal and an immortal, could become parents.

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><p>Steve retched into the gutter, his stomach rolling as he threw up everything he had eaten, ever. The Howling Commandos ringed the ally they were in, eyeing him with concern but keeping a watchful gaze for any enemies that they had missed during the sweep. Bucky rest a hand on the base of his neck and squeezed, instincts from years of looking out for Steve rearing their head despite the Serum.<p>

Three weeks. He had been sick, daily, for three weeks. He couldn't eat, he couldn't sleep, there was always a low feeling of nausea in his stomach and he was tired of it.

"Steve, you need to talk to Phillips. Or at least that punk Stark. This is not natural." Bucky said, squeezing tighter as Steve groaned and dry heaved again. "Something could have gone wrong with the damn Serum."

Steve shook his head violently, even as the rest of the Commandos gave murmurs of agreement.

"No, I'm fine Bucky. It's probably just somethin' I ate." Steve straightened himself as he spoke, knowing deep in his gut that something else was very, very wrong. But it wasn't the Serum. He still moved just as quickly, reacted as well as he should (maybe even better), and hit just as hard as he had since the beginning.

Whatever was wrong, it was wrong in spite of the Serum, not because of it.

"Move out. Jim, Monty, sweep to the edges of town, I don't want them sneaking up on us. The rest of you, stay sharp." Steve coughed harshly, the taste of bile still strong on his tongue, but he shouldered his gun again and began moving with his men.

Whatever was wrong, he didn't have time to worry about it now. He had a war to help win, he could deal with a little vomiting.

Steve rounded the corner into the deserted village proper, shield strapped to his back and ready for anything.

He missed the eyes staring at him from the shadows that watched him until he was out of sight.

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><p>Steve continued pummeling the bag in front of him, his breathing becoming harsher as he fought back the past.<p>

Seventy years.

Seventy years gone in the blink of an eye.

Everyone he knew, gone. Steve knew, he had checked for them all.

Peggy was in a nursing home in England, and barely remembered her own name let alone his. That had been like a knife to his gut, watching the strongest woman he had ever known wander lost in her own mind.

Howard was dead, had been for over twenty years, and his son seemed nothing like his father from everything that Steve had found on him. It was as shame, Howard had been a great man. A great friend.

The rest of the Commandos were gone, leaving behind families and friends that remembered him, but that he didn't know. There was nothing there for him.

There was no one here for him.

He left everything behind.

They should have left him in the ice.

"Captain, may I have a word with you?" Fury spoke from behind him, but Steve never slowed his punches, the sound of his hands slamming into fabric soothing. "Captain?"

Steve shrugged, refusing to turn.

Petty, but if Fury wanted to talk, he could talk to his back.

'Couldn't sleep?" Steve snorted at the question.

"I was asleep for seventy years, I think I've had my fill." Another bag joined the mountain of them on the floor and Steve gave up, stepping back from the remains of it and unwinding the tape from around his hands. It was unnecessary now, the Serum healing whatever damage he gave himself before it was an issue, but old habits died hard. Some harder than others.

"You should be out, seeing the world. Celebrating." Fury said the word and Steve's heart clenched.

Celebrating? What was he supposed to be celebrating?

"When I went under, we were at war. When I woke up they said we won." Steve said, inhaling until he couldn't hold it anymore, trying not to imagine replacing the bag with Fury's head. "They didn't say what we lost."

Didn't say what he'd lost.

The file that he'd almost bullied Agent Coulson into digging up for him, lay sitting on his coffee table in his tiny Brooklyn apartment, and had been for the last two weeks. He hadn't gathered the nerve to open it yet, but from the size of it he knew exactly what would be written there.

Steve didn't think that he could take that knowledge. Thinking it was one thing, seeing it written in black and white was different.

"We've all lost something, Rogers, some more recently than others." Steve looked up and bit back the groan.

Of course, that's why he was here. The small talk was just to try and butter him up.

"Here with a mission, Sir?"

"I am." Fury didn't deny it, at least that was something.

"Trying to get me back into the world?" Steve asked sarcastically, knowing he would go AWOL if Fury tried to send him to one more SHIELD mixer. Agents were good backup on missions, but he wanted to spend as little time around them on his off hours as possible. There was only so much shop talk that he could take.

"No. To save it." Steve took the file that Fury handed him and flipped through it without really listening. The cube, Hydra's secret weapon, the one thing that Steve was glad got buried by time, stared back at him.

Hearing Howard, probably the only person other than Steve that had known what it was capable of, had pulled it from the deaths and handed it over to SHIELD filled him with rage.

They should have left it were they found it, and he said as much. Didn't people ever learn?

"Who took it from you?" someone stronger always got the one thing you didn't want them too, it was a law of nature. Unchangeable.

"Calls himself Loki. He's… not from around here." Steve tightened his grip on the folder in his hands until the paper wrinkled and began to tear.

It couldn't be. Loki, his Loki, had to be dead by now. Seventy years for a man already in his thirties was a long shot.

But still….

Steve barely listened as Fury talked, his mind elsewhere until the Director left.

Even if it wasn't His Loki, Steve couldn't keep the hope from blooming in his chest.

Two days later, Steve thought that he was going to hyperventilate. He steadied himself as much as he could, gripping the edge of the Quintet walls until he felt he was steady on his feet.

Loki. The Loki. His Loki. The Loki that took Him, who promised to keep Him safe.

The Loki who lied.

Steve glared the bastard currently sitting on the bench like a King, barely registering the questions Tony Stark was throwing at him. He wouldn't have been able to give you any of the answers he gave if his life depended on it.

Loki was there, in front of him, and all Steve could think of was Dustin.

Dustin as he last saw him. Ten tiny little fingers, ten perfect little toes. The most important person he ever failed.

And it was all because he trusted the wrong person.

It was not a mistake that he would repeat.

Clenching his fist, Steve stepped forward ready to find out what happened no matter who was listening, when lightening sparked and thunder rolled over head, the storm brewing out of nowhere. Loki flinched back, and Steve couldn't help but poke at the sore spot.

"What? You afraid of a little lightening?" He didn't care if he was being cruel. Steve wanted to be a lot crueler, but unfortunately there were others present that may disagree with his chosen course of action.

"No, I'm not overly fond of what comes after."

The back of the Quinjet was ripped open, Agent Romanoff straightening their flight up as quickly as she was able, but she was the only one who reacted quickly. A red caped figure was in, grabbing hold of Loki and dragging the Asgardian out before Steve was able to stop him.

He couldn't let that happen, not until he had his answers.

And the Tesseract. That was important too, but not Steve's first priority.

"Might want to sit this one out, Cap!" Natasha yelled from the front of the jet, frantically flipping switches to keep them flying straight. "They are way out of our league, they are practically Gods!"

Steve made a flippant comment as he grabbed one of the parachutes, slinging it on his back before heading for the back.

He didn't care if they were giant space birds, he was going to get his answers. And nothing was going to stop him. Nothing.

Wind rushed past him as he went into free fall, his shield held out in front of him cutting his wind resistance. He could see the glow of Stark's suit ahead of him, and followed it in. He wasn't going to get there first, but he would get there in time.

Stark was flying towards Red Cape, who looked hauntingly familiar to Steve, when he landed hard on the ground, the vibration of the landing shaking his bones before he adjusted.

"Enough!" Steve yelled as he threw his shield, coming close to hitting them both before it careened back into his hand. It got their attention, and Steve found his eyes darting around the clearing, not seeing the one person he was looking for. Loki wasn't there! Had he escaped already? Dammit! "Why are you here?"

"I am here to stop Loki's schemes, and return the Tesseract to Asgard."

That voice, Steve knew that voice. He looked up meeting His eyes for the first time in over seventy years.

But there was no recognition, his eyes didn't even twitch.

That was almost disappointing, actually.

"It looks like we all want the same thing. So," Steve held up his hands, wanting to diffuse the situation before it got worse. He could deal with everything else when no one was in danger of being killed. "why don't you put the hammer down.."

"Uh, bad idea cap'n, he really likes his hammer." Stark, Iron Man, was knocked aside and away, sliding across the stone covered ground until he slammed into a boulder and lay still by a casual strike of the hammer while Thor got into position. He was not ready to give up, and Steve didn't really like where things were going.

"You want me to put the Hammer down?" Steve saw where he was going and took a deep breath, readying himself as the god took a huge leap, bringing the hammer down in a savage arc as Steve moved the shield into place. He didn't know if it would be enough to stand up to this, but he wasn't going to give in without a fight.

The world exploded as the hammer impacted and Steve gritted his teeth as he fought to stay standing. Thor was tossed back by the shock wave, the hammer flying out of his hand and landing somewhere among the still standing trees.

Well, Howard did say it would stand up to anything, good to know he was right yet again. Steve stepped out from behind the shield, slinging it over his back and groaning as he caught his cowl with the motion, knocking it off his head. His hair was sweaty and plastered to his forehead, dirt clung to his uniform from landing on the ground, and he had spandex tucked in places no spandex should ever see.

But Thor was staring at him like he was the sun, awe and longing on his face.

"Steven?"

"Thor. It's been a long time."

There was nothing else to say.

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><p>Steven…was alive.<p>

It was not possible, mortal lives were as short as the seasons. Thor would have told anyone who dared listen that his love was long dust, leaving nothing but bittersweet memories for Thor to remember.

And yet, he felt Steve's gaze on his back, the soldier looking exactly the same but tired and careworn. The past weighed heavy on those strong shoulders, and Thor wanted to sooth all the worries away.

But that, and answers, would have to wait until Loki had been dealt with.

"Loki's going to drag this out. So, Thor. What's his play?" Steven asked, his voice one soldier speaking to another, nothing of their past evident.

"He has an army, called the Chithauri. They are not of Asgard or of any world known. They will win him the Earth, in return for the Tesseract." Loki, another soul Thor thought lost to him, bringing down wanton destruction on a world Thor had come to love.

Simply to hurt Thor as revenge over real and imagined slights.

"So he's building another portal? That's what he needs Erik Selvig for." The one they called Hulk, a small and rather…weak looking mortal to Thor's eyes, spoke softly, pulling his glasses off his face. Thor blinked at the name. Would Loki's treachery run so far? Truly?

"Selvig?"

"He's an astrophysicist."

"He's a friend." And another lost to Loki's machinations. Mjolnir vibrated on his hip, reacting to the anger that was beginning to broil deep within him like a storm built power. Loki would have much to oay for when they returned to Asgard. Thor only hoped that he was able to contain as much of the damage as he could, before Loki went too far for even the Aesir to forgive.

"Loki has him under a spell, along with one of our own." The woman, Black Widow spoke for the first time, a quiet danger the warrior in Thor refused to ignore. She was deadly, and he knew that she wouldn't hesitate to do what she had to in order to remove her fellow from Loki's command. Thor hoped that he wouldn't have to harm her, but he would allow no one to injure his brother beyond repair. His judgment would not occur on Midgard, not when they were incapable of judging him fairly.

"What I want to know is why he let us take him so easily."

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy is a bag of cats, you can smell the crazy on him." Banner kept a careful distance between himself and the others in the room, and despite his small appearance Thor couldn't allow a slight to his family to go unremarked.

"Have care how you speak." Thor said, his voice coming out evenly despite his urge to rage, "Loki is beyond reason, but is of Asgard. And he is my brother."

The room was quiet for a few moments, mortals looking between each other for something to say, anything to say, before the Widow gathered her nerve.

"He killed eighty people in two days."

"He's adopted." And if Loki had known that from the beginning, if he had not been left to find out during the hardest part of his life, all of this could have been avoided. Yet another failing to lay at the All Father's feet.

The conversation continued around him, the loud mortal who attempted to defeat him in his suit of Iron invading the conversation and making himself the center of attention in short order. The words he spoke were beyond Thor's understanding, but he was well versed in people who talked to disguise their actions and so he easily caught the small bit of metal the Man of Iron attached to the underside of the display he was examining.

Another clever mortal, it would not surprise him if Loki attempted to take this one next. His brother had forever been fascinated by those clever enough to match him.

"As soon as Loki took Selvig, we moved Jane Foster." Phil, the Son of Coul, leaned against the display some time later, the room clear of all but those necessary. Thor looked at the image of his lovely Jane, tracing her features with a finger. She was just as beautiful, just as alive, as she had been when he last lay eyes on her. She was everything he wanted, everything he needed in a queen. Even her mortality could be overcome, if she impressed the All Father like she impressed him.

But seeing Steven again, remembering the love that burned as hot and bright as a star for a painfully short time, brought the feelings back as if they have never dimmed with time, and pain.

Could he honestly walk away from having that, again? Coulson was making platitudes, telling him that Jane was safe (and happy) doing what she loved out of Loki's reach, but all Thor could think about was the danger Steven was in.

"Thank you." It was for the best Thor thought that Jane was not in front of him. He didn't know what he would do if he was faced with the two that held his heart, albeit different parts of it. "It is no accident, Loki taking Erik Selvig. I dread what Loki has planned for him, when he is done. Erik is a good man."

Coulson paced him as he walked away from the display, unable to continue looking at Jane's face with Steve so close to him, a half smile on his face.

"Erik talks about you often. You changed his life, you changed a lot of things around here." Thor could not take that as a compliment, knowing what he knew.

"Things were better as they were. We pretend on Asgard that we are more advanced, beyond mortal understanding, but we are not. We come here, battling like bilge snipe," Coulson gave him a confused look at the term, and Thor frowned. The Allspeak should ensure he was understood, had his mother's spell failed him?

"A what?"

"Bilge snipe. Huge, scaly, with large antlers. You don't have them?" Coulson's look of repulsion was answer enough, without his verbal response. "They are repulsive. And they trample everything in their path."

Much like Thor himself. He learned much during his forced exile on this planet, but he was of the opinion that it had not been the best experience for those already on Midgard. They had not been ready for Asgard, and they were paying the price now.

"When I first came to earth, Loki's rage followed me here, to your detriment. And now again. When I was a child, I courted War."

"We are not at war… yet." Fury spoke from the stairs leading to the lab that the rest had disappeared to, staring down at them like a benevolent ruler about to ask something no one would want to give. "You think you could make Loki tell where the Tesseract is?"

Thor sighed.

"I do not know. It is not just power he seeks, it is vengeance, against me. I do not know a pain that would change that need."

Fury wanted him to torture, not just his brother but a prisoner of war on his own vessel. Thor's fist clenched at his side, wanting to show Fury the error of his ways, but he was not given the chance.

"Natasha needs the both of you in the lab. Loki wants to unleash the Hulk." Without a word, Fury was turning on his heel, Thor close on his heels.

Banner was with Steve. He would allow no one to put Steve in danger if he could at all prevent it.

Not even himself.

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><p>They were not going to be enough. They would fight, and fight until none of them were left standing, but Steve knew that it was a losing battle.<p>

"Call it Captain." Tony Stark nodded at him, trusting him to know the right calls, to get them all through this, and Steve would do what he could.

Even as he knew it wouldn't be enough, and wasn't that ironic? Surviving Red Skull, surviving seventy years in the ice, to die defending New York from aliens and a God with severe brother issues.

At least, if he died, he would see Dustin again. It was clear to him now that he would never get the answers that he needed from Loki, the god was too far gone.

"We have got to bottleneck that portal. They keep getting through and we'll never stop them. Thor, do what you can. You've got the lightening, light the bastards up." Thor flew off with a nod and a quick squeeze of his shoulder, Stark lifting Hawkeye to a perch higher up at the same time. Steve wished he had time to explain, to share his grief with Thor, but it would have to be another in a long line of regrets.

Black Widow helped him hold the line as long as he could, but there were too many and she was needed elsewhere. He lifted her up with the shield, and took a deep breath, surveying the damage around him during a lull.

The bus that they had liberated earlier stood empty near the edge of the battle, Chithauri foot soldiers advancing towards it for another round, when movement caught his eye and his breath caught in his throat.

A small boy, sandy blonde hair and bright green eyes stood in the remains of the bus, his clothes tattered and blood running down his face. He clutched a dirty teddy bear tightly in his arms, wailing at the top of his lungs for anyone to hear.

Dustin. He looked so much like Dustin should have that Steve's heart clenched and he wanted to collapse to his knees.

How they had missed him before, how he managed to stay alive in this chaos didn't matter. He had been found, and the Chithauri were headed right for him. Steve was moving before he consciously thought, eating up the ground between them with quick strides. He was not going to watch this little boy die, if there was anything he could do to stop it. Even if it meant dying himself.

He reached the boy just as blue bolts started flying towards them, huddling both of them behind the shield. The boy was crying louder, and Steve pulled him close to his chest.

"I gotcha buddy, you're ok." Unfortunately he couldn't fight and protect the child at the same time. But there was no way he could leave him there defenseless. "I gotcha."

"Steven!" Steve had never been happier to see lightening in his life, Thor abandoning the portal and landing in front of him. Bolts fried the aliens with effortless swings, fueled by more anger than he had ever seen in a sentient being.

He didn't know what brought it on, but he would take the save.

"Are you alright, Steven?" There was horror on Thor's face as he stared at the two of them, horror that Steve couldn't put a finger on. "Are both of you alright?"

Steve could only nod, hiking the boy higher on his chest.

"I will take the boy to safety and return." Thor took the boy without waiting for Steve to respond, almost prying him out of the other man's arm and clutching him tight, swinging Mjolnir in a tight circle with the other hand. "We will survive this, and when we do, we will speak Steven. You will tell me everything."

Steve watched him fly away, heart in his throat again.

He knew. By God above, he knew about Dustin.

Loki would pay for it, he would pay for everything. Growling under his breath, Steve threw himself harder into the battle ahead.

He wanted his answers, and he was going to get them


	2. Chapter 2

**AN-This is an all new chapter. **

**Disclaimer-I still own nothing. No copyright infringement is intended nor implied and no profit of any kind is being made. **

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><p>Chapter Two<p>

Albus Dumbledore stared at the issue of the Daily Prophet in front of him. Its headline was seared into his brain, but he couldn't tear himself away from the picture.

He had such high hopes for Sirius Black, the white sheep of the Black family. Friend to the Potters, he made the perfect Secret Keeper, he should have protected them to the death.

Instead he lead them to their death.

Albus covered the paper, unable to keep looking, and stared across his office. Instruments, tomes, all collected lovingly over a lifetime of research and serving the greater good, stood silent. Harry wasn't at risk yet, but that wasn't guaranteed. Sirius was the only person who would look at the Dursley's, and that would put Harry in danger.

Albus was going to have to move him, and he was going to have to move him quickly. But where? The Weasley's were out, everyone knew that Harry Potter was friends with the youngest boy and that would be the second place that anyone with brains would look. Sirius was many things, but he had never been unintelligent.

Things would be easier if he was, as the children said, stupid.

The Longbottom's, and almost anyone associated with the Order, was out. There just wasn't time.

He had to have someone he knew wouldn't harm Harry for the world...and idea came to the aging Headmaster, and he reached a down to pull open the bottom drawer of his desk. A small black box, engraved with runes meant to preserve whatever was held within it, sat innocently in the drawer covered in a thin layer of dust. Albus pulled the box out and placed it in front of him, considering.

He had never gotten an answer to his questions before, and over the years that passed he had just stopped trying. But maybe...maybe this time it would do some good.

Trying wouldn't hurt, at least.

Albus waved his wand over the top of the box, muttering incantations under his breath until each of the runes lit up with a soft silver glow, and the box popped open with an almost silent click. Albus reached in one handed and pulled out the colorful blanket sitting innocently within. Anyone else would only see red and blue fabric, coarser than most baby blankets but lovingly stitched, but Albus saw the truth.

The Headmaster could feel the power coming off of the blanket in waves, magic stronger and stranger than any he had seen before. It was still a mystery, twelve years since the Potters summoned him in a panic at finding a small baby boy on their doorstep, wailing in the cold with only a blanket wrapped around him for protection. No one reported a child missing, beyond the poor souls lost to Death Eater attacks and those never stayed missing for long; and Dumbledore could not trace the source of the magic, no matter how hard he tried and no matter what arcane method he used. He did invent two new uses for Dragon's blood, but little Harry's origins were still a mystery.

One more try, and then he would have to find somewhere else to hide Harry. He had to hurry, end of term was in two days, and there was no way he could hide the escape of Sirius Black from Harry for much longer. He wasn't ready to explain the depths of his failure, or the betrayal that took Harry's parents in one fell swoop.

* * *

><p>The Hellicarrier was quiet, the Avengers sprawled throughout the conference room in various shape of broken and exhausted. Tony was asleep with his head resting on the table in front of him, the cell phone in his hand gripped tightly even in sleep. No one moved to wake him up, given what he had gone through. Bruce was asleep as well, a borrowed pair of jeans and shield issue sweatshirt far too large for him replacing the clothes he had lost in his transformation. Clint and Natasha were in a corner sheltered from the rest of the room, the Black Widow blocking Clint from hostile stares the rest of the crew were giving them. Steve knew that if someone made the wrong move, there would be a bloodbath. He didn't know if he was awake enough to stop it, or if he even cared enough to.<p>

Barton, Hawkeye, had more than proven himself as one of the good guys as far as Steve was concerned. Anyone else had a problem with that and they could go through Steve...once he was able to pull himself up out of the incredibly comfortable seat Fury had shoved him towards when they all made their way back to headquarters.

Thor was still staring at him, hurt warring with joy in the back of his eyes, and Steve looked away. He couldn't bare to look at Thor, not with the knowledge that he caused their son's death. The son that Thor never got to hold and would never see.

"I will go tend to my brother." Thor said, standing abruptly and pushing his chair back from the conference table. Fury, standing looking over the ocean they were resting in until Tony was awake enough to figure out how to get them all back to New York, turned and stared at the God at the words.

"Hell no you will not! He is a prisoner, my people will 'tend' to him as much as he deserves." Fury said, but Thor stared him down.

"Steven shall accompany me, but I am not asking for your allowance in this matter, Director." Thor stated, turning to walk towards the door leading to the ruined pathways to the Hulk Chamber. Two SHIELD agents tried to be brave and stop him, but one good look at his face had them moving out of the way quickly, "Steven?" Though it was phrased as a request, Steve knew it wasn't one and pushed himself painfully to his feet. The serum healed his wounds, but he hadn't taxed it that much since he was first invading HYDRA bases, and he needed to eat more than the small bit of Shawarma he was able to down earlier. If he didn't get actual food and lots of it, he was going to crash and crash hard.

"Steven?" Thor's voice brought him out of his thoughts, and Steve darted a glance at him quickly before looking back down at the ground in front of him. "Are you well?"

Steve nodded but didn't answer. He didn't trust his voice.

"Steven..." Thor started, but they reached the door and Steve darted forward to open the door and keep from having to answer. "...remember, do not trust what he says. Loki is my brother, but he lies as well as he speaks." Steve knew that fact well.

"Come to gloat, brother?" Loki asked as the two made their way inside, sitting on the floor at the back of the Hulk Chamber. No one had asked how they got a new one so quickly, Dr. Banner just shrugging like it was an expected bit of being with SHIELD. Steve didn't know if he would have been able to handle being treated like a monster as well as Dr. Banner did. Loki looked the worse for wear, and Steve frowned. Loki's eyes were green, the green that he always remembered them being...but he could have swore when they saw him during the battle that the gods eyes were a bright, otherworldly blue.

Maybe it was a trick of light. Eyes didn't just change colors on a whim and especially not that quickly.

"No, brother, I have not." Thor stated, crossing to the cage quickly and pulling Steve along behind him with an insistent hand on his forearm. "I have need to question you."

"Question me to what end, brother?" Loki asked, clearly mocking Thor as he refused to stand up, and instead stared at the man he once called brother with a smirk on his face. He was enjoying this. "You know I shall not answer, so what shall you waste my time?"

Thor shook his head and Steve tensed. Sparks danced along the surface of Mjolnir, sparking off onto the metal surfaces around them, and Loki abruptly dropped his jesting as he registered exactly how angry Thor was. Steve was glad, he had seen the damage the God of Thunder could do when he was angry, he didn't want to see what would happen when he was absolutely enraged.

"Tell me about our son." The words hit the air like lead and the room went even more quiet than it had been before. "Now, Loki."

"What is there to tell, Thor? I told you the truth decades ago, why must we go over things again?" Loki said sullenly, refusing to look at either of them. Steve growled.

"Then tell me, Loki. If anything you ever said actually meant anything, if you were ever the friend that you claimed to be, tell me what happened to my son." Steve tried to keep his voice even, tried to keep the pain that still beat in his heart at bay, but he wasn't sure that he was going to be able to. Everything in him was screaming for revenge, to make the person responsible for the loss of his son pay in blood. "Tell me!" It came out as a roar, and Loki flinched backwards for a brief moment before straightening himself and climbing to his feet.

"I lost him, Steven. I held him in my arms, crossing paths no mortal has ever dared tread, and I lost him. What more is there to tell?" Loki asked, pain hidden deep in his voice, but Steve could hear it. No matter what Loki had become, no matter the monster that he was now, at one time he had been capable of caring.

"How did you lose him? How do you lose a child, to..to thin air!" Steve raged, shaking off Thor's restraining hand, pacing closer to the glass of the cage, "You said you would keep him safe, Loki!"

"I TRIED YOU PUNY MORTAL! I TRIED!" Loki yelled, crossing the cage in a matter of seconds and staring into Steve's eyes through the glass. "without me, you never would have held your son, do not presume that I did not care for my nephew, Steven." Magic was building in the cage, a green glow licking at the bottom of the cage as it slowly crawled up the walls and covered Loki from view. Thor grabbed Steve by the arm and hauled him backwards, as far back from the glass as they were able to get without actually leaving the room.

"Brother, calm yourself. We just wish for answers." Thor said, pleading with his brother to not lose control, and Steve clenched his fist. "You owe us that much."

"Calm myself? Brother, I shall not calm myself. You know nothing of what you speak! Keep your pet mortal on a leash, if you do not wish him to lose his tongue." The magic buildup blasted free as Loki spoke and Thor moved quickly, whirling to put his back to the blast heading towards him and tucking Steve completely behind his larger form. Steve groaned as he felt the heat of the magic's passing, pressing closer to Thor and wishing that he had his shield with him.

"Are you well, Steven?" Thor asked quickly as the magic began dying down, and Steve nodded quickly.

"Are you? You took the most of it." Thor gave a wry smile and nodded.

"Aye Steven, I am well. I am well used to my brother's trickery, my armor was protected from his anger long ago." Thor straightened himself to his full height and turned, taking Mjolnir in his left hand and giving it a slow swing. The green fog still hovering heavily in the room, the most physical Steve had ever seen Loki's magi and he had seen a lot throughout the door, dissipating as Thor continued to swing his hammer until there was no longer a trace of it. The God of Thunder glared at the God of Mischief and Lies, still stuck on the right side of the cage.

"Do not try that again, Loki." Thor's word was law and Loki glared, but made no move to do...whatever it was that he had done before. "Now te..."

Thor was cut off.

"Hello." Steve shifted on his feet to face the newcomer, a fit of dizziness overcoming him at the moment and he reached out to place a hand on the wall to steady himself, as his eyes fought to focus on the man standing in front of them.

The man that in no way should be there. Long white beard, tucked neatly into the belt of his...robes? and blue eyes that sparkled from behind half moon glasses, he wasn't the type of man that would be at home in a SHIELD facility of any kind.

"He..llo?" Steve questioned, shifting himself to better defend if the stranger turned out to be a threat. 'Can we help you?' The man smiled brightly and but looked around.

"I am...honestly not sure. I was hoping to find answers to a question, but I am not sure how you gentlemen would have such answers." The man said, pulling something out of the inner pocket of his lime and purple robes. Who ever thought lime and purple were supposed to be in the same outfit at any time, clearly worked for HYDRA. "I don't suppose any of you gentlemen know the origins of this, do you? It looks rather similar to your garments, young man." He held out the bit of cloth he had pulled out and Steve's world froze.

It couldn't be. Steve was moving around Thor before he knew it, snatching the piece of cloth out of the strangers hand and pressing it to his face. It was probably just his head, but it still smelled like Dustin. Like baby powder and sunny smiles.

"Where did you get this?" Steve asked, only the cloth in his hands keeping him from reaching out and shaking the stranger until his eyes rattled from his head. "Where is Dustin?!"

Thor grabbed the back of Steve's neck, squeezing tightly and Steve gritted his teeth. "Steven? What is it?" Thor's blue eyes bored into Steve's eyes, but he couldn't find the words. Here was proof, proof that Dustin had existed, and he wasn't going to let it go. Not for anything.

"Oh, you are a fairly clever one, aren't you wizard?" Loki laughed from behind the glass of his prison, bringing the room's attention back to him. Steve was convinced that Loki would shrivel and die if he wasn't the center of attention at all times.

"What do you mean?" The stranger asked pleasantly enough, but tucked his hand into the outer pocket of his robe, underneath the beard still tucked into his belt. Steve knew what someone reaching for a weapon looked like, and he cursed once again that he hadn't brought the shield. Without it, he was defenseless and just had to hope he would be able to get close enough quickly enough to make a difference.

No matter how much he would love to see Loki taken down a peg or two.

"Oh, do not think me a fool, mortal. I can feel the magic on you from within my cage. No where near as impressive as my own, but you are stronger than most of the mortals I have met. You would have to be, to trace my magic backwards to the source." Loki sighed, "I suppose my loss of calm did nothing to help hide me, I do so hate when you are right brother. Try not to make a habit of it." Loki was talking to himself, and Steve blinked.

"Ah so you are the one who sent the boy, then? I'll admit, I wasn't expecting to find the truth after so many years. It was just by chance that I even tried again," the stranger said, "but needs pushed my hand."

"Who are you, stranger? What business do you have with us?" Thor's voice boomed through the room and Steve winced. While he was glad to see that the years hadn't changed the other man, er, god, too much, they would have to go back over the meaning of the words 'inside voice'. Again. Steve's eardrums were no better equipped to take the booming now than they had been before the serum.

"Apologies, I should have introduced myself. I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." The man, Albus, gave a short bow. "As for why I am here, young man," Steve couldn't help himself, he started laughing at the thought of Thor (or even himself) being called 'young man'. They were many things but young wasn't one of them. "I am trying to find answers about someone very important to me. The owner of the blanket your friend is now holding."

Steve's breath hitched. "He's alive? Dustin's alive?"

A confused frown appeared on the old man's face. "I'm afraid that I do not know anyone by the name of Dustin. Though, given the circumstances, I suppose it is not unlikely that the name he goes by is not the name he was originally born with."

Steve didn't care what his name was. He could go by Kublai Khan lord of the skies for all Steve cared. All he wanted was to be able to see Dustin again, see that his little boy was alright.

"But he's alive, right? He's okay?" Steve pressed, pushing himself closer to Dumbledore and leaving Thor standing guard behind him. "he's alright?"

Dumbledore frowned, and Loki laughed softly in his cage. Steve looked towards the imprisoned god out of the corner of his eye and did not like the look on his face. Loki knew something, and it wasn't something that would be good for either of them.

"Yes, he's quite well, for the moment anyway." Dumbledore said, and Steve wavered on his feet. "Do you know his parents?" Steve nodded, and couldn't stop himself from reaching back for Thor's hand. Thor took it and squeezed tightly.

"He's my son." Steve said, for the first time being able to publicly claim his son in front of people who mattered. It was a heady feeling.

"Our son," Thor echoed from behind him, fierce pride in every syllable.

Dumbledore frowned, studying both of them intently over the top of his his half moon glasses.

"I'm sorry, that's impossible. You are far too young." the Headmaster said, and Steve's stomach sank to his toes. "You can't be more than twenty-five, either of you. No, I'm afraid that is impossible. But, please do tell me the truth. It is vital I find them."

Steve frowned, but Thor beat him to the punch.

"Dumbledore," Thor said, tugging his hand gently out of Steve's and moving forward until he was staring down at Dumbledore with his arms crossed. He radiated menace, and the muscles in his arms flexed as he fought to control himself. "We do not lie. Where is my son?" Thunder boomed overhead and the Hellicarrier rocked violently as a storm grew from nowhere. Loki laughed harder, and Steve turned to glare at him fully, the blanket he had carefully stitched together from bits of his old and ripped uniforms still gripped tightly in his left hand.

"What is so damn funny, Loki." Steve growled out, wanting to pull the other man out of the cage so he could hit him in the face a few times.

"Have you not figured it out, Steven? I thought you fairly intelligent. I guess I was mistaken." the God said, laughing harder at the look on Steve's face. "Clearly the blanket you hold is old, and worn, but does it really look like seventy of your years have passed for that cloth?"

Steve looked down and studied the blanket a bit closer. There were a few stitches pulling free from the edges, the hem of the blanket not as even as it could be, but Loki was right. It didn't look like he would have expected after seventy years. It should be almost disintegrating, or at least show some sign of age.

"No..." Steve murmured, not liking the connections his brain was making though parts of him were singing with joy. "No it doesn't."

"I'm sorry, my boy, I don't mean to accuse you of lying, but given your ages, it is quite impossible for you to be my friends parents." Dumbledore was saying, not the least bit intimidated by Thor's looming presence. "Perhaps you have just seen this type of blanket before?" Dumbledore offered and Steve growled, abandoning the still amused Loki and storming over to where the strangely dressed man still stood. Thor made no move to stop him as he pushed the taller blonde aside and grabbed the front of the Headmaster's robes with one hand, shoving the blanket in the man's face with the other.

"Do you see these stitches? I did these by hand, each and every one of them. There is still blood on this that I couldn't get out, my blood." Steve turned the blanket around, finding the stain that he knew was there and fingering it gently. "There are no other blankets like this. Where is my son?!" The last question was a bellow, and he wanted to shake the old man violently until all the answers he was looking for came falling out of his mouth but Thor placed a restraining hand on his shoulder and pulled him gently backwards.

"As my brother and his companion apparently have lost the facilities needed to explain themselves properly, I suppose it falls to me." Loki spoke from the cage, his arms still crossed over his chest and that same damn smirk still curling his lips, "While my brother and the good captain look rather young by your standards, their looks are deceiving. Steven, when were your born?"

Steve blinked at the question, clenching the blanket even tighter in his hand. No one had asked him his birthday, his real birthday, since he finally made his way into the army. "July 4th, 1918." He waited for the inevitable cracks about Captain America being born on the Fourth of July, but none came.

"Impossible." Dumbledore breathed, studying Steve closer. "And you?" the Headmaster turned to Thor, and Steve smirked to himself at the obvious lack of 'my boy' and 'young man'. "How old are you?"

Thor thought for a moment, and Steve found himself dearly wanting to know the answer.

"In Midgard terms? I suppose I would be close to 1100 years, though on Asgard I am still in my youth." Thor said, and Steve sat down where he stood. He was dizzy, he was hungry, and finding out that the man he had fathered a child with was thousands of years old instead of the 21 he had always thought was the last straw.

Steve fainted, not hearing the commotion that erupted around him.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN-Thank you for all the follows, favorites, and reviews. Hopefully this chapter won't disappoint. **

**Disclaimer-I still own nothing. No copyright infringement is intended nor implied. **

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><p><strong>Chapter Three<strong>

"Harry? Are you sure you're okay?" Hermione was fluttering around his head, and Harry clenched his fist. He was perfectly capable of making his way up the stairs to the Headmaster's office. Madame Pomfrey wouldn't have let him out if he wasn't capable of moving around on his own. "You were bitten by a basilisk Harry, you really should not be moving around."

Harry moved faster, Hermione's concerned rambling turning to an outraged shriek before fading away altogether as he outdistanced her. He may be recovering, but he would always be faster than she was. Harry was faster than a lot of people at Hogwarts, he mused to himself as he turned into the corridor that led to the Headmaster's office, the stone gargoyle in front of it silent as always.

"Sherbert Lemon." Harry said clearly, and the Gargoyle jumped aside quickly, revealing the spiral staircase that slowly rotated towards the Headmaster's office. Harry stepped on the steps with only the slightest bit of hesitation. He had the vague memory of stepping on an escalator at the shopping center when he was very small and getting stuck enough that he had to be pulled out by fire services. Petunia had berated him for hours and he hadn't left the cupboard for almost a week.

Before Harry could raised a hand up to knock and announce himself, the door swung inwards and the Headmaster was smiling at him from behind his desk.

"Harry, it's good to see you up and around my boy." the Headmaster said, standing and waving a hand at the plush chair on the other side of the oak desk. Harry took the seat carefully, feeling like something was hanging over his head just waiting for the right word in order to fall and destroy everything.

"You wanted to see me Professor?" Harry asked, scooting forward on the chair until his feet touched the ground fully. He felt like a child, and he supposed that was the point. Grandfatherly Dumbledore may be, but he was still the head of a school and making kids feel small was the best way to keep control.

"Yes Harry. I'm afraid I have some..information," The Headmaster sighed as he spoke, and seemed to age twenty years in front of Harry's eyes, "information that I should have told you long ago, my boy."

Dumbledore reached out and picked up a piece of cloth laying on the desk, a piece of red and blue cloth, passing it across to Harry who took it with a shaking hand. He fingered the smooth cloth under his hand, running his thumb across the uneven stitching. Harry had the feeling that he should know this bit of cloth, that it should mean something to him, but he couldn't put a finger on it.

"Sir?"

The Headmaster smiled gently at him, linking his hands together on his stomach and fixing Harry with a stern smile.

"Harry, what I am about to tell you is upsetting. I know you will not understand my delay in telling you this, but I will ask that you hear me out. Can you do that?" Harry nodded and a stone settled into his gut. "Good, I knew I could count on you, Harry. That blanket you are holding, was the blanket you were wrapped in as a baby." Harry looked down at the blanket.

"My parents gave me this, sir?" Harry had nothing from his parents beyond the invisibility cloak and the photo album that Hagrid put together picture by picture for him last year. He had never thought he would get something like this a piece of both of them he could actually hold in his hands.

"Yes, Harry. Your parents gave you that blanket. Lily and James Potter found you wrapped in it on their doorstep." Harry looked up at the Headmaster, trying to wrap his mind around the words that he was hearing. But no matter how hard he tried, they made no sense.

"What do you mean?" Harry's voice wavered, and he clenched his fist to keep them from shaking. "Headmaster?"

"I'm sorry Harry. This is not how I wanted you to find out, if I could have prepared you for it better I would have. But, circumstances have pushed my hand. James and Lily Potter loved you from the moment that you appeared, and they saw you as their son, that I can tell you without a doubt. But they were not the ones to give birth to you."

As Dumbledore began to explain how he ended up with the Potters, Harry found himself leaning back in the seat and clutching the blanket in a death grip. The Potters died for him, they were his parents, but they weren't.

No his parents were two men in America, one of which didn't even sound human like he was human.

And they wanted to meet Harry.

"Harry, I cannot tell you everything, but I strongly urge you to agree to this meeting." Dumbledore said, staring at the young Gryffindor with eyes that seemed to see straight through him. "It is not safe for you in England, and I cannot protect you outside of these walls."

"And if I say no?" Harry gathered himself and straightened, pulling every bit of Gryffindor courage that he had around him like a cloak. The Headmaster was asking him to forget everything he had ever thought about himself. He had never met Lily and James Potter, at least not consciously, but he knew they loved him. They died for him, what greater expression of love could there be? "What happens then?"

Dumbledore leveled a stare over the desk at him again, this time seeming to peer straight through Harry and into the velvet at his back. "Harry, I know this is not easy, but I shall have to insist that you give this the best shot you can. Captain Rogers will be able to protect you, and unfortunately your safety comes before your happiness. I am sorry my boy, but you will be accompanying me tomorrow."

Harry jumped to his feet, anger running through him. His fists were clenched tight enough that the knuckles were going white, but Harry didn't care.

"So I never had a choice? You act like this is up to me, but you take away my decision like it doesn't matter!" Harry almost screamed but the Headmaster didn't react. "if they loved me, if they cared, they wouldn't have left me to be raised by other people."

"Harry, I understand you are frustrated, and I am sorry that yet another choice has been taken from you, but Captain Rogers and Mr. Odinson will care for you, you have my word, and you will be back here for next term. It is only two months."

Harry could feel the anger burning in his blood like lava, but he knew that he couldn't let it out. So he just clenched his teeth and took a deep breath."Is that all, Headmaster?" Harry forced himself to ask, knowing a losing battle when he saw one. The headmaster nodded, a sad smile on his face and Harry turned on his heel to march towards the door.

"I am sorry, my boy." The words reached Harry's ear before he left, but he refused to turn around and acknowledge the apology.

Apologies didn't mean anything.

"Harry? Harry James Potter!" Hermione was waiting for him at the bottom of the steps, and Harry rolled his eyes. he wanted five minutes to himself, but he couldn't even have that much. "What's wrong Harry?"

Hermione's voice went from strident to concerned in an instant, and Harry wondered how she could change emotions that fast.

"Harry?" Hermione said, coming up behind him quicker than he thought was possible. "What's wrong?" He shrugged her hand off and pulled his arms tightly around himself. It was summer, so the stone hallways were warmed by the sun streaming in through the windows spaced throughout the walls, but Harry couldn't shake the chill.

"Nothing's wrong, Hermione." Harry said dully, taking the steps towards the Astronomy Tower. "I'm fine."

"You're lying, Harry James Potter. What's wrong?" a group of Slytherins' pushed past, and Hermione shot them a dirty look as they bumped into her intentionally.

"Merlin, Hermione, you just never get up do you?" Harry turned on the step and glared down at the bushy haired girl. He knew she meant well, but he was angry and wanted to be alone. Just because they were friends didn't mean that everything he did said or heard was supposed to be public knowledge. He was sick of being placed under a microscope every time he turned around. "I'm fine, okay? Go bother Ron, I'm sure he forgot to pack something."

He stomped away without waiting for a reply, his footsteps echoing through the tower until he disappeared from her view.

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><p>Avengers Tower was quiet, and Steve was thankful for the solitude as he paced his floor. Thor was gone, having to deliver Loki for judgement even though it was obvious the scepter had just as much influence over the God of Lies as it did everyone else.<p>

And Dustin, now Harry, would be here tomorrow morning. Steve wasn't sure how to wrap his brain around that fact. He had lost everything, was sure he would never see his son again or if he did that he would be far too old to need a parent in his life.

Being wrong should make him happy, ecstatic even, but Steve couldn't feel anything but nerves. Harry had parents, had a family, and lost them. Steve wouldn't blame him if he never saw Steve or Thor as the fathers they dearly wanted to be.

"Rogers, what are you doing still up? Shouldn't you be getting your beauty sleep?" Tony's voice came from behind him, and Steve spun around. His heart was hammering in his chest, and he didn't know why.

It was just Tony. Tony Stark, even though the two of them hadn't gotten along since they met, had proven himself willing to do what it took to get the job done, even making the sacrifice play. Steve shouldn't be so uncomfortable around him.

If it wasn't for the billionaire, Steve would be stuck meeting his son in his small, rundown apartment in Brooklyn.

"I thought this was my floor." Steve said, and wanted to kick himself the minute it was out of his mouth. Tony just smirked at him, raising an eyebrow as he crossed to the bar that Steve hadn't and probably wouldn't stock, rummaging around underneath it and coming up with a bottle of whiskey Steve had never seen before.

"It is, but if you forgot, my name is on the side of the tower. Technically, they are all my floors." Tony said, taking a large swig from the whiskey bottle without a glass. Steve frowned and crossed the floor towards the other man, not liking the haunted look all over Tony's face.

It had been a week since the Battle of New York, and Tony had been working tirelessly, with the Avengers that were still around and the various Government agencies, to clean things up. Steve knew he had donated millions, along with his own personal time, to the recovery.

"And you couldn't have whiskey on your own floor? I mean, on one of the other floors that are also yours?" Steve smirked at the billionaire, and couldn't keep himself from laughing as Tony stuck out his tongue. Apparently it was true that Tony was just an oversized man child.

"Maybe I wanted your company, Capscicle." Tony sank down onto the floor, leaning against the bar, after giving Steve's bare living room a frown. Steve had taken the apartment, and gladly, but he wasn't going to take the offer to furnish it. Knowing Tony, he would end up with something outrageous just because it amused the billionaire. "Are you sure you won't let me get you furniture?"

"No, Tony, again. I'll move my stuff from Brooklyn, eventually." Steve joined Tony on the floor, draping his arms over his bent knees and staring at the wall in front of him. He'd have to get furniture in here, soon, since Harry was coming to stay.

Steve hoped the boy would want to stay.

"If you're sure." Tony took another swig, his hand shaking a bit as he lowered the bottle, and Steve took it gently. Tony didn't fight him, and let Steve move the bottle away from him.

"Why are you here, Tony?" Steve asked gently. Tony sighed and didn't answer. But he also didn't reach for the bottle again.

"Are you ready to have a mini Captain running around? How old is this kid anyway?" It was an obvious attempt at changing the subject, but Steve let it go. He had things he didn't want to talk about too.

"He's twelve, almost thirteen." Steve said, leaning his head back. "And I'm not sure how much of a mini me he might be." He didn't even know what the boy looked like. If he would have grown into a mini Thor, or a mini him, or a mix that was all his own. Steve just knew he wouldn't be the little baby Steve remembered holding, with ten perfect little toes and ten perfect little fingers.

But he was alive, and that was all Steve could ask for.

"How did that happen, anyway? I mean, its not like men get knocked up here, now. Was it the serum or something else?" Tony turned his head to look at Steve as he spoke, and Steve could see the light of "Science!" igniting in the billionaires eyes. He just laughed.

"Not the serum. Apparently, Loki thought Thor needed a child, or just thought it would be funny, either way it was all his fault. Not that I'm complaining." Tony's mouth dropped.

"Loki? Reindeer Games, all Humans must bow before me, he made you pregnant?" Tony groaned, "Magic. Of course it had to be magic."

Tony was pouting, and Steve bit his lip to keep from laughing out loud. The engineer hadn't been happy to hear that yes magic was real, and no, you probably can't recreate it.

"That must have been weird, though. I mean, being pregnant...during a war. Wow."

"Oh, you have no idea."

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><p>"Loki Silvertongue, do you have anything to say in your defense?" The entire court of Asgard had turned out for the trial of its youngest Prince, and the throne room was silent as the All Father spoke.<p>

Loki said nothing, just stared at the ground between his feet.

What could he say? He had always been prone to mischief, teaching lessons to those who refused to learn in the normal way and the more humiliating the lesson, the better Loki liked it. But that was it. He had the good of Asgard at the front of his mind, he always had.

He tried to show the All Father that Thor wasn't ready, that he needed time to grow before being given the throne.

But then it all went wrong.

He was suddenly the cause of his brother's banishment, his father's early Odinsleep, and had the whole of Asgard to protect...while trying to come to terms with not being who he had always thought he was.

Loki fell, and met Him...and then everything was over. He wasn't himself, he could only watch as his arrogance and his greed were used and twisted into something unrecognizable. Over four hundred mortals were dead at his hands, and it was his fault.

If he had been stronger.

If he had talked to someone, if he hadn't let go.

If, if, if. The word haunted him. If could have changed a lot of things, but he had chosen wrong, and now he would have to deal with it.

"Well? Answer me!" Odin's voice boomed out over the court again, and Loki flinched but stayed silent. "Very well. As you have offered no reasoning or defense for your actions, I have no choice but to pass judgement. Loki Odinson, you are hereby sentenced to..."

"Wait!" Loki would have groaned if it would have done any good. Thor, typical, predictable Thor, couldn't just let him get the punishment he deserved. Thor couldn't stand by and watch someone he thought wasn't guilty punished.

"Thor?" Odin's voice was confused and Loki clenched his fists in front of him, the metal of the cuffs cutting into his wrists. "You have something to say in his defense?"

Thor's footsteps brought him closer to the throne and Loki watched them come to a spot next to him. Thor's hand landed on his shoulder, heavy and warm where it pressed into the cloth of his prison garb.

"I do." Thor's voice rang throughout the throne room, everyone leaning forward to hear what the Crown Prince and Favored Son could possibly say in the defense of a monster that nearly destroyed two realms on a whim. "Loki was misguided, father, and it was as much my fault as it was his. He fell..."

Loki tuned out Thor's words, counting the cracks in the floor below him, no doubt left by his destruction of the rainbow bridge. He didn't want to hear Thor recount his failings to everyone.

"Loki, is this true?" Odin asked, and there was a tone to his voice that he hadn't heard since he was a small child, running to his parents to make the monsters under the bed go away. Loki looked up and met his father's gaze.

It would be so easy to just say yes, to let them accept that Loki himself held no accountability in this mess.

But he couldn't. He had never run from his failings before, and he wouldn't start now.

"No, Father, it is not." The word Father stuck in his throat, but he shoved it through. "Thanos was only able to use what was already within. I am as much to blame for my actions as he."

Odin studied him for a moment, and Loki held his breath but refused to look away. He wouldn't cheapen this moment.

"Loki Odinson..."


	4. Chapter 4

**AN-Thank you for all the reviews, favorites, follows, etc. I'm glad people are enjoying this. Apologies for the 'brown instead of green' mixup from last chapter, that has been corrected.**

**This chapter is FLUFF. I made my teeth ache with all of the Fluff, so there's that. **

**Disclaimer-I own nothing.**

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><p><strong>Chapter Four<strong>

"Sir, Captain Rogers visitors have arrived." JARVIS didn't speak any louder than usual, but Steve jumped to his feet like he had been electrocuted. "They are waiting in the lobby."

"Show them up, J, they can use my elevator." Tony lounged back in his seat, glass of scotch in his left hand despite the early morning. The engineer had decided that there was no way that he was letting Steve meet his son alone, and since Thor was still away in the land of bilge snipes and rainbows, Tony was the only one there for the job.

Steve privately though that he just wanted to have first glimpse of Du...Harry. Steve reminded himself for the tenth time that Harry was the name that he had gone by his entire life, and that was what he would answer to. It was hard for Steve to reconcile in his head, but he was just glad Harry was alive.

"Are you ready for this, Cap?" Tony asked. There was a smirk on his face, but Steve could see the concern in his eyes. Steve nodded, wiping his sweaty hands on his khakis and watching the numbers over the door slowly change over as the elevator came closer and closer.

Would Harry hate him? Would he blame Steve, and Thor, and Loki for him getting lost? Steve was trying to come to terms with Loki...not intentionally losing his son, but it was still a hard pill to swallow. Would a twelve, almost thirteen year old, be able to handle that?

The elevator dinged, and the door opened slowly. Dumbledore was the first one to step out, his outfit just as colorful as it was the first time they met, though he seemed to have found some kind of...suit at least.

"Oh my god, is that Velour? What are you, a reject from the seventies?" Tony said, laughing hysterically. Dumbledore just smiled, his ridiculously long beard tucked into the gold belt that was wrapped around his waist.

"Steven, it's a pleasure to see you again." Steve shook his hand quickly, hoping that he wasn't coming across as nervous as he felt, and resisted the urge to crane his neck and get his first sight of Du...Harry.

"You too, Professor. You're...a bit earlier than I thought," It wasn't asking about the weather, but as far as ice breakers went it wasn't the best thing he could have said. A snort came from behind the Headmaster, and Steve's heart began racing in his chest.

"It's almost five at Hogwarts, the Headmaster forgot about the time difference" The boy stepped out from behind Dumbledore, his right arm hugged tight to his body. Steve eyed him from head to toe, drinking in the first sight of his son since he was born.

He was...small. Smaller than Steve thought he should be, considering Thor was not a small man and Steve himself wasn't small either. Steve panicked internally, had he passed on his pre-serum body? Was Harry going to have all the health problems he had?

He never wanted that for his son. The late night hospital visits, the inability to breathe, none of it.

"Steve? You in there Cap?" Tony's voice broke him from his thoughts, and Steve felt his face flush. Harry was staring at him, green eyes narrowed.

"Your eyes are the same," Steve blurted and Harry's mouth dropped open. Tony started to laugh behind him and Dumbledore shook his head with a smile.

"Well, that's one way to introduce yourself, Cap," Tony said, snickering in between the words. "Not like you're going to scar the boy for life or anything. Aren't you supposed to be good with kids?" Tony slid in between Steve, who seemed frozen to the spot, and Harry, holding out his hand. "I'm Tony Stark."

Harry shook the billionaires hand quickly, but didn't react to the name like so many did.

"Pleasure, Mr. Stark." Harry's voice was so very young, and Steve wanted to hide him away from the world. He only had the basics of what was going on, Sirius Black the mass murderer escaped and after Harry, but it was enough to make Steve nervous.

Dumbledore's insistence that Harry not know, was even worse.

"Don't call me Mr. Stark, kid. The name's Tony. Mr. Stark was my father." Steve stuck his hands in his pockets as Tony and Harry made awkward small talk, Harry's eyes never quite leaving Steve. The Headmaster stood back, attempting to enter the conversation between the two brunettes, but his attempts were met by stony silence.

"Captain, might I have a word with you?" The Headmaster stepped to Steve's side. His eyes were sad as he watched Harry laugh as Tony made one of his trademark over exaggerations.

"Of course," Steve murmured, moving the two to an out of the way corner of the room. He wasn't going to leave Harry alone with Tony, not when he'd just gotten him back, but he would listen.

"I'm afraid that things have become worse than I thought, Steven." Albus said, sighing and rubbing a hand across the bridge of his nose. "The ministry is...panicked, by Sirius' Black escaping and has decided to take measures I cannot stop."

Steve listened in horror as the Headmaster talked about creatures out of a nightmare, Dementors, that sucked the happiness out of you and left an empty shell.

"And this Kiss, that's what is going to happen to Sirius Black if he's caught?" Steve asked, not sure what to think about that. The man was a murderer, he didn't deserve sympathy...but Steve wasn't sure anyone deserved that.

"Yes, the Minister has ordered it. He's going to be Kissed on sight."

"And they'll be at Hogwarts, at a school, all year?" Steve absolutely didn't agree with that part. Things that vile should be near children.

"Unless he's caught before the school year starts, yes." the Headmaster straightened himself, pulling a silver pocket watch out and glancing at it. "Unfortunately, I have a meeting that I can't get out of. "

Steve shook the older man's hand, watching with a frown as Harry only gave a short nod as the headmaster said goodbye.

There was something going on there.

"Steve! Steve your kid is hilarious!" Tony laughed from the other side of the room, shaking his head as Harry smiled a bit, "Come over here, you have to hear this!"

Steve made his way over, listening to the joke with good grace, but he mind wouldn't stop thinking.

Dementors.

Could he really send Harry back to school knowing those things would be there?

* * *

><p>"So, how did you meet?" Harry asked. He was sitting on the brand leather new couch on Steve's floor, as far away from Steve as he could get, but at least he had taken a seat. It wasn't like this had been most...comfortable of first meetings. Steve was just glad the kid wasn't running for the hills.<p>

"How did who meet?" Steve gave Du...Harry a smile, turning to face him on the couch. The TV was playing quietly in the background, some mindless show that neither of them had the interest in watching but that filled the silence nicely. Harry made a face, and Steve laughed.

"Come on, don't make me say it." Harry said, wrapping the arm he wasn't favoring around his knee. "How did you and...my other dad, meet?"

Steve thought for a second, not sure how to answer. So he did what every parent did when faced with a question they didn't want to answer: changed the subject.

"Do you want to play a game, Harry?" Steve stood up as he spoke, walking to the closet that he had shoved the few board games he thought would be entertaining for both of them into and pulling out the monopoly board. He had been surprised (and excited) that something from his time had lasted the years, though he was confused by the strange variations that sprung up. "I have Monopoly?"

Harry shrugged. "I've never played." Steve frowned, pulling the coffee table closer to the couch and spreading the contents of the box over it as he sank onto the floor.

"Really? I thought this game was popular everywhere?" He separated the various cards and gave Harry a smile, "You can sit on the floor, it's not as much fun to play from the couch."

Harry bit his lip, watching Steve for a moment with eyes as green as he was a baby, and slid on to the floor out of Steve's reach. "My Aunt and Uncle...aren't big on games." Steve frowned, having the feeling there was more to it than that, but didn't push.

"That's okay, it's an easy game, you'll pick it up in no time." Steve began explaining the rules, glad that there weren't that many changes since the first time he had picked up a board, Harry watching him intently as they picked their pieces.

"A thimble?" Harry asked as he slid his battleship onto Go! and Steve stuck out his tongue.

"My mom sewed, I've always been the thimble. Bucky," Steve just sighed as the familiar pang thinking of Bucky always brought, but pushed through it and began handing out the brightly colored bills. "Bucky was always the top hat, he said it made him feel dapper."

"Who's Bucky?"

"Your godfather, or, at least he would have been." Steve shoved the dice towards Harry, watching him roll and carefully begin moving around the board with a smile. Talking about Bucky always made him sad, but this...this made up for it.

"Soooo...how did you and my other dad meet?" Harry gave him a smirk as Steve dropped the dice and cursed.

"Saw through me, huh?" Steve ran a hand through his hair, moving his thimble (There was nothing wrong with a thimble) past Harry and into 'Just Visiting'.

Harry shrugged, "You're not that good."

"Fair enough. Well," Steve thought where to begin, "I wasn't always this big, in fact I was downright scrawny...but I couldn't stand a bully..."

_Brooklyn, New York_

_April 17th, 1943_

"Hey! Leave her alone!" Steve Rogers yelled pushing his body into a run as much as he could, the threat of an asthma attack burning in his lungs with every step he took into the grubby alley.

He didn't care. He couldn't walk away from the woman being attacked by three men four times her size and live with himself afterwards. He may get beaten into the ground, but if she could get away every bruise would be more than worth it. "I said leave her alone!"

Steve reached the group, growling when he fully saw the poor woman struggling in the arms of two brutes with tears streaming down her face. Yanking on the largest man's arm Steve put his whole weight into turning him around, grunting with the effort.

"Scram, Pipsqueak." The monster of a man threw Steve off with little effort, sending him to the ground with a shove of his arm before turning back to the terrified woman, licking his lips as he looked at her.

"Sorry, I can't do that. Just let the lady go and we'll all walk away." Steve pushed himself to his feet and squared himself. He didn't have Bucky's strength, but Bucky had always made sure Steve knew how to throw a punch and keep himself alive as long as possible. The man paused, his buddies beginning to laugh drunkenly as he turned around and stared at Steve. His fists were clenched at his sides, and Steve could tell that they were going to smart when they landed on his face, but he wasn't going to back down.

"Help me please." The woman sobbed, throwing herself backwards trying to escape her captors' grips, but it was no use. Dumb they may be but they weren't giving her a chance to get away.

"Please!"

Steve sighed and smiled at her.

"Don't worry ma'am, you're going to be ok." Steve said, keeping an eye on the lunk in front of him.

"Now kid, don't to making promises you can't keep." The lunk cracked his knuckles and took a step towards Steve, grabbing him by the shirt and lifting him a foot off the asphalt. "I'm gonna take care of you, and then the little lady and I will have ourselves a time."

Steve gathered himself with his heart pounding in his chest, and swung with everything he had.

His fist glanced off the bruisers chin, Steve's knuckles smarting from the impact. The thug's head barely twitched as Steve impacted, but he did give a growl, pulling his fist back and retaliating quickly.

The impact made Steve's ears ring, blood pouring down his chin from his split lip. He would have a bruise tomorrow, but he wasn't going to stop. The bruisers fist impacted again while he was disoriented and his shirt ripped as he fell towards the ground, his back hitting the ground and knocking all the air from his lungs.

"Just let the lady go." He wheezed, glaring up at the other man who just looked at him for a few seconds and turned back to the still crying woman, reaching out to rip her shirt. Steve started picking himself up off the ground, determined to keep fighting until he couldn't anymore or they let the woman go, but another figure stepped in front of him. Steve stared at his broad back, muscles stretching the material they were stuffed in, blond hair pulled into a tail at the base of his neck.

"I think you should do as he says and let the lass go, friend." The stranger said, his accent different and hard for Steve to place. It sent a shiver down his body, and Steve fought back the blush hoping that no one noticed. "Now."

The thug laughed, looking back at his friends who suddenly didn't look as confident as they had moments before.

"Mike, maybe we should just let this one go. She ain't worth it man." Thug two said, still holding tightly onto the woman's arm, but his eyes were searching around for an easy exit from the situation. "Come on."

Thug three was nodding frantically along with his friend, but Mike just scowled.

"No. This bitch..." he tried to start but the stranger was moving before he could finish his sentence. Steve could only gape as he watched the three goons go down in a matter of seconds. He had been in plenty of fights, but he had never seen anyone move that quickly. Ever. No movement was wasted, and every hit counted.

"Are you alright, friend?" Steve blinked, trying to pick his jaw up off the ground as the stranger spoke to him, a hand outstretched to help Steve off the ground.

"Yeah…yeah, I'm fine." The woman was still crying, but she ran in the opposite direction away from them. Steve sighed and hoped she got home safer than she did before. "Thank you. For your help I mean."

The stranger laughed, his blue eyes crinkled.

"I have no doubt you would have come out victorious, friend, you have heart. I am Thor, and it was an honor to fight beside you." Steve didn't think he had fought much at his side, but he would take the compliment.

"I'm Steve. Steve Rogers. It's nice to meet you Thor."

* * *

><p>Harry was a monopoly shark, Steve watched in fascinated awe as Harry quickly grasped the quirks of the game...and proceeded to stomp Steve into the ground. If he didn't know better, he would say that he had been hustled.<p>

"So, what next?" Harry asked innocently, taking the outrageous rent that Steve owed him and sliding it smoothly into the large pile in front of him. "That's how you met, but how'd you get together?"

Steve blinked at him, still trying to figure out how this game got so quickly out of his control. "Well, Thor wasn't really used to New York..."

_**Brooklyn, New York**_

_**May 10th, 1943**_

_Steve shifted in his seat, not used to the plush backing, trying not to stare at the man across from him too obviously._

_Thor was still as huge, as strange, as...foreign as he had been the day they met, the taller blond running to the rescue like a knight in shining armor._

_But Steve loved being in his company. Steve loved explaining things like baseball, and what guy didn't know about baseball? He loved how Thor never took his size as a slight against him, treating him just like everyone else, like he was worth something._

_Even when he was bent over, trying to pull air into his lungs, Thor never laughed. He merely sat there, large hand on his shoulder, until the attack ended._

_Only Bucky had done that before, and even Bucky had moments where it was too much for him to handle and he had to disappear until it was over, not that Steve blamed him at all. Even he didn't want to be around while he couldn't breathe._

_But Thor never left, Thor stayed until he was breathing normally again, and then pulled him back to whatever they had been doing before._

_Everything was always so...normal._

_Until now._

_Now Steve couldn't sit still._

_And Thor didn't seem to notice his discomfort, studying the menu he held between his large hands, eyes creased as he tried to decide what to order._

_Steve already knew, he had known since the minute they stepped in here what he was going to order, he had dreamed of trying it for years, ever since his mother told him about this place when he was little._

_They shouldn't be here though, not for a simple drinks and dinner between friends after a long day at the pier. They should be at the Clam, or the Stool, not at one of the nicest restaurants in Brooklyn._

_This was where people brought their dates._

_This couldn't be a date, they were men and men just didn't date each other._

_No, this was just a dinner between friends and that was it._

_Once Steve came to that conclusion, he let his nerves flow away, and had one of the better nights he could remember in a while. Laughter flowed across the table, especially as Thor fought and lost with the plate of pasta that he had decided on ordering, the noodles refusing to stick to the fork like the man wanted them too._

_The beer was good, though Thor once again decided that It wasn't as good as the 'ale' from his home, a place that Steve wasn't quite too sure of the location, though he had decided not to pry._

_He wouldn't be the first person that ran from the tensions rising in Europe, the entire world waiting with baited breath for War to breakout once again. Steve just figured it was a sore subject, and refused to press._

_All too soon the night was coming to an end, the two walking side by side through the backstreets of Brooklyn to the apartment Steve shared with Bucky. He hoped that Bucky would still be out with his latest dame, he and Steve didn't see eye to eye about Thor and Steve would rather avoid another fight if he could at all help it._

_"Thank you, for accompanying me this eve, Steven." Thor said, looking down at him with so very blue eyes as they reached the door to Steve and Bucky's apartment._

_"No problem, buddy. I had a swell time, we'll have to do it again." Steve smiled, reaching out to smack a hand against Thor's arm, frowning as his hand was caught gently between Thor's larger ones and held still._

_Okay, this was...very strange._

_"I am glad, Steven." With that same smile, Thor lifted Steve's hand towards his mouth and Steve's heart began thudding in his chest. Had it suddenly gotten warmer? Steve felt his face flooding with heat as Thor's lips pressed to the back of his hand softly, warmth flooding him from that simple contact._

_He couldn't think of what to say, his mind felt jumbled and not all there as he watched Thor straightened up from his bent position of Steve's hand, giving him another of his blinding smiles._

_"I will see you soon, Svass." Steve took that as his cue, fumbling his hand behind his back to open the door to his apartment and nearly falling inside as it was suddenly yanked open behind him, Bucky catching him one armed before he hit the ground._

_Steve groaned under his breath a the glare he could feel Bucky sending over his head as he was gently righted, Bucky not letting go until he was sure that Steve had his feet under him._

_It figures, there was no way that these two weren't entirely slated to annoy the hell out of each other, if only to ruin Steve's fun._

_"Thor." It was a growled, and Steve reacted immediately, pushing at his best friend until the other man moved backwards, allowing Steve to turn and give Thor a smile._

_"Good night, Thor. I'll see you later, then?" He barely waited for the blonde's answering nod, before pushing Bucky inside the apartment and kicking the door shut behind him with a foot, glaring a Bucky with everything he had._

_They were going to have this out, right here and now. Bucky was always spoiling for a fight, but this was getting out of control._

_"James Buchanen Barnes." Steve smirked to himself as Bucky paled and backed away from Steve, and sent up a silent prayer of thanks to Bucky's mom. She was the one who gave Steve the tip on how to handle her out of control son. "We need to talk."_

* * *

><p>Harry slid to his side as he laughed, wincing as he landed on his right arm. Steve pulled him back up, smirking as Harry continued to laugh.<p>

"Careful kid, it's not that funny." Steve said, and Harry just laughed harder. Apparently, he found the story of Bucky and Thor hilarious.

Well, Steve guessed it was kind of funny. In a way. If you squinted.

"Yeah, it is," Harry giggled. His eyes were bright, and there were spots of color on his cheeks that Steve didn't think was totally because of the story, but he said nothing. Stress came out in different ways, and he would rather laughing then crying. Steve...had no idea what to do with a crying child, even his own. Du...Harry had broken his heart when he cried as a baby, and he didn't think it would be any different as a twelve year old. "Do you have any other stories?"

The game was winding down, and it was clear that Harry had won, so Steve shrugged and began putting all the pieces back into the box.

"I have a few, what do you want to hear?" Steve mentally went through the stories he had that would be age appropriate, tossing out half the ones from the War, as Harry leaned back against the couch.

"Can you tell me more about Thor?" Steve nodded, opened his mouth to speak, when a deafening crash of thunder shook the room and bright light exploded on the balcony off the living room. Steve jumped to his feet, putting himself between Harry and the threat, and kicked himself for not having his shield next to him. His fists balled up, and he vibrated with fury at the thought that someone would try hurting his son. "Stay back, Harry." His tone was steel, and Harry knew better than to disobey. Two figures appeared out of the glow, the door swinging open on a gust of air.

"Steven!"

Steve relaxed at the shout, shaking his head as Thor appeared in the doorway, the light of the Bifrost fading behind him. Steve could see Loki standing behind him, his head down as he stood in his older brother's wake.

"Thor, I thought you weren't going to be back for a while." Steve said, nodding his head at Loki. "Is everything okay?"

Thor nodded, sitting Mjolnir down gently next to the balcony doors. He stretched, his bulk filling the room for a moment, before Harry shifted out from behind Steve. Everyone froze, even Loki flicking his eyes up from the ground to take in Harry, who seemed unnerved by the attention.

"Dustin?" Thor's voice was a croak, and he coughed to clear it. Harry frowned, crossing his arms defensively over his chest.

"My name is Harry." Steve made "Abort! Abort!" motions with his hands, and Thor thankfully got the point, though Harry gave them both a strange look.

They stared at each other uncomfortably for a few moments, Harry not looking for introductions and withdrawing back into the shell Steve had managed to halfway pull him out of. He wasn't going to let all of his hard work be in vain. Steve turned back towards the table and picked up the game box, holding it out to the other three.

"Monopoly?"


	5. Chapter 5

**AN-Thank you for all the awesome reviews! They feed my muse, and make me push to get chapters finished. Like this one, that I had problems with until this morning. Fair warning, this chapter bounces around a bit, and pulls in parts from A Sky Full of Stars, but hopefully they all make sense.**

**Many thanks to njchrispatrick for cheerleading, pushing, and listening to me whine when this chapter stopped playing nice.**

**Disclaimer-I still own nothing. No copyright infringement is intended nor implied.**

* * *

><p><strong> Chapter Five<strong>

He was so hungry. So tired. But he couldn't stop.

Not now. Not when he was so close.

The black dog, thin and ragged, came to a stop under a streetlight, tongue hanging out of his mouth as he panted. He tilted his head, looking at the street sign, and gave a low 'woof'.

Privet Drive.

He was here. The dog set off at a fast trot, faster than his body could handle, but he was pushed by adrenaline.

He just wanted to see Him. Just one look, and he would be able to finish what he escaped for.

Just one look, and he could make everything right.

All he needed was one look.

* * *

><p>"I don't know what we're going to do, Pet." Vernon Dursley sat at the table in the kitchen, stack of bills spread out in front of him. It had been almost a year since the Boy stepped foot in the house, and just as long since they got the support payment the Headmaster of that crackpot school supplied them with. They relied on it to support their lifestyle, and Vernon wasn't going to change it.<p>

"Maybe we should...scale back a little," Petunia was standing by the sink, a plate from dinner held loosely in her hand as she stared out the window. "Dudley doesn't need so many presents, and if he studies a little more he could get a scholarship to Smetlings..."

Vernon slammed his hand down on the table in front of him, rattling the plates still sitting there and Petunia jumped.

"No!" The large man was breathing hard, his face purpling as he got more and more angry, "Dudley is not going to suffer because that Boy has now sense of loyalty to the people who put a roof over his head. That Headmaster will just have to bring him back from where ever he took him, and pay us what we are owed."

Petunia nodded shakily, holding on to the lip of the sink as she stared at her husband with wide eyes. Vernon had always had a temper, but it had been years since it was turned on her.

"Whatever you say, dear."

Vernon nodded, smiling at her easy acceptance, and crossed the kitchen to the pad that Petunia kept at the phone for last minute messages, ripping off a sheet and beginning to jot down the message that he would send to that Headmaster, demanding the return of both their nephew and the money. "Do you know how to send this, Pet?" Vernon was in a better mood, crossing to peck his wife on the cheek as he passed her the note, not noticing or choosing not to care at how she tensed when he touched her. She nodded shakily and tucked the note into her apron, deciding that not answering would be the best way for her not to set him off again.

"Good, with the payments coming back in, we can afford to take that trip to Rome you've been wanting, though why you want to look at old buildings and religious crackpots I'll never know." He swept the bills into a pile, no longer concerned with them, and smiled.

Soon his life would be back in order, and everything would be like it was supposed to be.

"Where's Dudley? Off with Piers again?" The words were barely out of his mouth, Petunia happy to change the subject, when the front door to Number Four went flying inwards. A large black dog, larger than any in the neighborhood barrelled in over the debris, standing in the doorway to the kitchen and growling. Petunia screamed, and Vernon reached for a heavy object, but the dog was gone before they could.

The man it was replaced with, wasn't any less terrifying.

"Where is he?" the man's voice was hoarse, a growl, and Petunia shook. She tried to move away from him, her back running up against the sink.

"Who?" Her voice trembled, and he moved a step closer. His greasy, lanky hair hung in her face, hiding his features, but his eyes glared at her.

"Harry. Where. Is. Harry." He growled, "I can smell him. He was here. Where is he?!"

His voice boomed through the room, the hair on Petunia's arms raising as she felt the familiar tingle that said someone was doing magic around her. She hated the feeling, it was like bugs covering her skin, crawling all over her.

"We don't know. That Headmaster said he was staying somewhere else for the summer!" Vernon pushed himself forward again, finding whatever small bits of courage that he had to face the man. "He's not here!"

The man growled again.

"Dumbledore left him with you?" He snorted, "The old man is more foolish than I thought. Lily wouldn't have stood for it."

Petunia straightened her spine at the mention of her sister. "Lily was half the mother I am. Harry is better off with us than he ever would have been with her and her freak of a husband." Even as she said the words, Petunia cringed away.

Lily wouldn't have forced Dudley to live in a cupboard, she knew that, but her son wasn't a Freak. Freak's got what they deserved.

The man laughed. "Lily was twice the mother you are, Dursley." He grinned, white teeth flashing in the light. "Tell Dumbledore that I will find Harry, and there is nothing he can do to stop me."

The walls in the kitchen began to shake as the man backed away, pictures rattling on the walls in the hallway and dishes falling off the china cabinet to shatter on the ground. Petunia screamed again, because she didn't know what else to do, and held on to the sink. She prayed that it would be all over.

Harry was gone, they weren't supposed to have to deal with the freaks without him. They were supposed to be normal.

"Who are you?" Vernon asked, clinging to the kitchen chair to keep himself standing. Petunia hoped he didn't fall, if he did there was no way that she could get him back to his feet by herself.

The man grinned again, even as he backed away.

"Sirius Black, of course."

Petunia couldn't take anymore. First Vernon, and now a wizard mass murderer, her mind shut down and she welcomed the blackness that took her over.

* * *

><p>Harry yawned as he sat up in bed, wincing as he stretched his bad arm out a bit too far. It was still hurting, on and off, and no one could figure out why. The phoenix tears should have cured him, they had saved his life, but the wound hadn't fully healed like it was supposed to.<p>

Just another check on the "Reasons Harry Potter is a Freak" list.

"Harry, are you up?" There was a sharp rap on the door, and Harry froze.

Right.

He had forgotten.

He wasn't at the Dursleys anymore. He wasn't at Hogwarts.

He was at Stark Tower in New York City.

And the guy rapping on the door was his father, dad, whatever. One of them.

"Harry?" Steve pushed open the door a bit, blue eyes crinkled in concern. He looked tired, but more awake than Harry felt. "You okay?"

Harry nodded rapidly, not wanting the man to come in and try to talk about 'feelings' or whatever was going on behind those eyes. It was awkward enough being here, he didn't need to add heart-to-heart discussion on top of it.

"I'm fine, waking up now." He reached for his glasses, frowning as the arm shook as he picked it up. The magic holding them together wasn't going to last much longer, but he hoped that they lasted at least until he got back to Hogwarts. Steve smiled, leaning against the doorjamb and looking at Harry.

"Good, you hungry? I think Loki decided to cook this morning, " Steve shrugged, "Not sure if we'll all get food poisoning by the end of it, but I wasn't going to argue."

Harry didn't blame him, Loki was scary when he got that look on his face (or he was losing at Monopoly).

"I'm not really hungry, thank you though." The idea of eating, with all three of them watching him, made his stomach turn over. He felt like he was under a microscope. Steve frowned.

"Harry, you need to eat. Did you eat at all yesterday?"

"Before I left Hogwarts." It was a lie, but Steve didn't have to know that. "I'm not hungry, I promise."

"Well, at least come out and sit with us. I don't think your Uncle would appreciate it if we didn't all bow to his cooking, and you don't want to see him angry." Steve's head lifted just as a loud, and obnoxious, beep pierced the air. The smell of smoke followed. "Uh, just..come to the kitchen when you're ready, Harry." He turned and headed down the hallway. Harry could hear him yelling "Loki! Smoke is not a good thing!" as he went.

Harry laughed despite himself, the sound almost hysterical, and swung his feet over to finally stand.

The carpet was warm under his feet, and Harry shrugged into a pair of school slacks and the least disgusting looking of Dudley's hand me downs. He wondered absently, as he headed into the hallway and followed the smell of burning pancakes and curses in a language he had never heard, if Thor and Steve would let him go to whatever the American equivalent of Diagon Alley was and try to get clothes he wouldn't be embarrassed to wear out in public.

* * *

><p>Thor watched, laughing under his breath, as Steven and Loki tried their best to keep the Tony's Tower from burning down around their ears. He could have warned Steven that Loki was unable to cook anything that was worthy of eating, but it was more amusing to watch the Captain find out for himself.<p>

Loki wasn't the only one to wreak havoc in the palace, after all.

"Dammit Loki! Just move!" Steve shoved Loki out of the way with his hip, ignoring the glare the God of Lies gave him, and grabbed the flaming pan. He tossed it into the sink, turned on the sink, and sighed in relief as the flames were quickly put out. "Okay, new plan. We'll call out for breakfast, and tomorrow I'll cook."

"I am more than capable of 'cooking'" Loki sneered the word, "Mortal. Your primitive equipment is to blame."

Steve didn't answer, wisely, already on the phone to the local Waffle House, ordering enough to make Thor's eyebrows raise. "Are you feeding an army, Steven?" The Thunderer asked, smiling as Steven blushed.

"No, I just don't know what Harry would like." Steve put the phone down, and leaned back against the counter. "He said he's not hungry, but…." Steve trailed off and Thor frowned.

"But what, Steven?" Thor didn't like not being in the loop. He had dealt with the pain of losing his child before he ever met him, he had dealt with knowing his brother had been the one to lose him. That was a pain that wouldn't go away, even as Harry was within his reach. But he wasn't going to stand by and be an observer now.

Steve ran a hand through his hair for the hundredth time since they put Harry to bed the night before, and sighed.

"He's so small, Thor."

Thor raised an eyebrow.

"Yes?" Harry was smaller than Thor would have expected, he had never been a small man, but he was part human, and if there was one thing that Thor knew it was that mortals came in all shapes and sizes.

"Thor, neither one of us is exactly small. He was conceived," Steven blushed and Thor smirked, "after the serum, but he's smaller than I was before it. I just…I'm worried something is wrong."

"What would be wrong?"

"I was…"

"Good morning, Harry." Loki cut in, and Thor turned in his seat to look at the doorway. Harry was standing there, his arm held tightly to his side just as it had been the night before, and he was watching them with guarded green eyes.

"Morning," Harry answered, sliding into the room and staying out of their reach. His glasses were battered, and crooked on his face, a too big t shirt hanging almost to his knees. He looked disheveled, and Thor frowned. A quick look at Steve, who was shaking his head almost wildly, kept his mouth shut. But it was an issue that would have to be dealt with eventually. Harry, whether he liked it or not, was a Prince of Asgard. He would have to act like it. Thor ignored his mother's voice laughing at him in the back of his mind. "Breakfast should be here soon, we decided to order out." Steve said lightly, trying to break the tension that was building silently in the room. Harry just nodded as he slid on a seat, staring at the table under his folded arms. "I didn't know what you wanted, so I got a little bit of everything."

"I told you, I'm not hungry."

Steve and Thor blinked.

"Harry, you must eat." Thor frowned at Harry, but the boy wasn't looking at him.

"I'm not hungry."

"Harry…" Steve said, coming across the kitchen to stand next to Harry on his chair. The Captain held a hand out, it hovering over the dark head underneath him, but he seemed scared to touch. Thor didn't blame him, last night Harry seemed at ease with all of them, but now it was like they were looking at a totally different boy.

"I said I'm not hungry." Harry lifted his head, green eyes blazing, to stare at the two of them before putting it back down.

"Don't speak to your father in that tone." The words were out of his mouth before Thor could even think about it, and the entire room froze. Loki stepped smoothly in between the three of them, blocking Harry from both of his fathers and quickly catching the boy's attention.

"Harry, why do we not let your father's," Loki glanced at the two blondes, daring them with his eyes to step in and say no to his plan, "wait for the morning meal. I'd like to hear more about the magic you midgardians practice."

Harry perked up at the mention of magic, eagerly hopping off the stool and following his uncle to the living room. The two mages were chattering away, Harry's hands making sweeping gestures as he tried to explain some concept or another, leaving Thor and Steven to stand and stare at each other.

"Well…that could have gone better." Steve finally said when they were alone.

"I apologize, Steven." Thor sighed, leaning his head on his arm, "I do not know what came over me."

Steve shook his head, sliding onto a stool next to him. "No, I wanted to say it to. It's hard," Steve sighed, "I keep expecting to see the baby that I left, but he's almost thirteen. Does he even need us anymore?"

Thor didn't know.

"Can we do anything else but try? He is our blood, Steven, and while he is older, I believe he still needs us. I hope he still needs us."

* * *

><p>"Thank you." Harry said, after he finished his rambling, and probably insane, explanation of Hogwarts and the hundred and one crazy things the castle held. Loki listened to it all with good grace, only occasionally putting in a comment or scornful observation.<p>

"For what, nephew?" Loki smirked as he said the word, and Harry rolled his eyes. None of them would let him forget why he was here. Loki was the most easygoing out of all of them, but he wasn't making this any easier than he had to.

"For getting me out of there."

Loki nodded, leaning back on the couch and staring at the ceiling above him. His dark haired fell over the back, longer than any guy Harry had ever known, pale hands linked on his stomach as he thought. They were quiet for a few moments, before Loki spoke.

"Do you know, how you ended up with the Potters to begin with?" Harry shook his head.

"No. I assumed they just left me."

Loki shook his head, peaking at Harry with one green eye.

"No. That is not how it happened at all, nephew mine. Steven loved you, more than I ever thought possible. My brother, though he never met you, felt the same. Your loss sent him into a depression that no one thought he would ever break."

Harry scoffed.

"Some love that was. They left me, on a doorstep. Not really the greatest parental declaration."

"That was by my own error, Harry. Your father, Steven, entrusted me with your care, and getting you to my brother, and I failed."

"What happened?" Harry hugged a pillow to his chest, curious and not wanting to know at the same time. "

Loki took a deep breath, and began to talk.

_July 17th, 1944_

_Roots of Yggdrasil_

_Loki tucked the bundle in his arms closer to his body and took a deep breath. He wasn't scared, not of the pathways only he knew, but he had never taken another body through them and he wasn't sure the babe would be able to handle the treck._

_He had to attempt, dangers or no._

_Steven was gone, and Thor was quartered on Asgard in between bouts at the head of the Asgardian forces. He was all that poor Dustin had left, even if he did not know of the child._

_This had all been for Thor, after all, and it was time that he knew._

_Steve would have wanted that._

"_We have no other choice, little one." Dustin fussed in his arms as Loki stepped through one of the rifts, the cold of between striking them both. Loki bundled the baby closer, wrapping the edge of his cloak around him until only the tip of his nose poked out. "If your grandfather catches us before we speak with your father, it will not end well for either of us."_

_That was an understatement. Odin did not regard mortals with anything other than apathy, and he would not take the appearance of one in his court with any kind of grace, grandson or not._

_Dustin screamed harder the farther they moved from Midgard, and Loki had to tighten his grip as the baby fussed harder._

_Losing him here in the between was not an option, nothing but death and destruction lay on the branches of Yggdrasil._

"_Hush, child, hush. Not much longer." Dustin merely waved his tiny (almost too tiny) fists in the air, face scrunched up in displeasure and Loki frowned with alarm as he felt magic beginning to surround the two of them._

_Magic here, especially unconscious magic, was not advisable. Loki didn't know what effect it would have on the area around them, and he wasn't sure that he wanted to find out._

"_No, little one. Stop." Lok said, trying to wrap his own magic around the boy and contain it until he could get them to safety._

_Dustin wasn't having any of it, and with one last face scrunch, Dustin disappeared. Swearing rather creatively, Loki rushed ahead, dodging down holes that only he knew and heading to Asgard as quickly as he could._

_If he was lucky, he would be able to find the boy and present him to his father quickly._

_If not, Thor may never forgive him._

"So, they didn't leave me?" Harry's voice was small, and Loki shook his head.

"No, they did not, Harry. They were trying to give you a chance," Loki sighed, "It was my fault that you were lost."

Harry shook his head. He wanted to be angry, he wanted to hold on to the grudge that had been boiling since he found out who he really was, and it would be so easy to keep going on upset and refusing to deal with anything.

But he couldn't.

"It's not your fault, Loki." Harry had to force the words out, "My magic has always had a mind of its own."

"When's your birthday, Harry?" Steve's voice came from behind him, a wan smile on his face as he looked at the two of them. Thor was standing over his shoulder, studying the two on the couch with sad blue eyes. It was an obvious change of subject, but Harry was willing to grab on to it.

"July 31st, why?"

Steve blinked.

"Oh, that's…closer than I thought it would be." Harry frowned. Wouldn't his birthday be the same in both? He fell through space, didn't he?

He studied Steve closer, looking for a clue.

"Wait….how old are you?" Steve looked young, too young to have a thirteen year old, and it occurred to Harry that he had never even considered how the hell they had him.

Steve's lips twitched slightly. "Mentally? Twenty-eight. Physically?" He chuckled slightly. "About ninety-two, give or take a few months."

Harry's jaw dropped.

"What? How?" Harry didn't know what he was supposed to think. Wizards lived to be older than Muggles (Dumbledore the prime example, not to mention the Flamels), but he had never heard of one that looked in their twenties but was actually pushing their first century.

"Wait." Harry had a thought, and it wasn't necessarily a thought that he liked all that much, but he had to know. "when was I born?"

Steve cocked his head to the side slightly and stared at Harry, before grinning brightly.

"July 11th, 1944."

Steve smirked as Harry leaned back and blinked in shock, jaw opening and closing as he fought to find something to say.

"What?" Harry couldn't process the words. He was thirteen, almost fourteen not….almost seventy years old. "That's not possible."

"I was born in 1918, Harry. I was frozen in the ice shelf of the arctic for over seventy years."

Harry shook his head, his mind refusing to accept what he was hearing. Humans just…didn't survive after seventy years in the ice. Humans didn't survive one year in the ice. It just wasn't possible.

"How." It was a demand, and Steve sank down on the other side of Loki, fixing him with blue eyes as Thor sank into the recliner across from them all. He sat in it like a throne.

The story that Steve told was incredible, and parts of Harry wished he hadn't heard.

"So, you're Captain America?" Harry giggled as a thought came to him, "Kinda funny that I was raised in Britain then."

Steve stared at him for a moment, mouth working as he tried to find something to say, until the snort he was trying to contain escaped and he started laughing.

"Bucky would have loved you, Harry." Steve laughed until tears leaked from his eyes.


	6. Chapter 6

**AN-Sorry this chapter took me so long to get out, it was really giving me trouble. I'm still not happy with it, and I apologize if it bounces all over the place and doesn't really make much sense, but Chapter seven is already planned and will hopefully follow in the next week or so. **

**Those of you who read the previous incarnation of this story will probably recognize the basis of a few scenes, but they were some of the most fun to write so I reused them. **

**Thank you for all the reviews, follows, favorites, and C2s, and a special thank you to njchrispatrick for his cheerleading and listening to me whine until this chapter was finished. It would probably still be sitting on my hard drive if it wasn't for his pushing me. **

**As always, this has not been beta read or edited. All mistakes are my own.**

**EDIT-The mention of Harry at the end have been corrected, I am not sure if the servers are just not picking up the changes, or if there is just a lag. Thank you for everyone who has pointed that out for me.**

**Disclaimer-I own nothing. No copyright infringement is intended or implied and no profit is being made o****n this work.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Six <strong>

Harry stared at the building in front of him, heart thudding in his chest, while Tony strutted ahead of them all like he owned the place.

Knowing Tony, he probably did.

"Come on, Harry, it's not going to be that bad." Steve squeezed Harry's shoulder, but his voice wasn't as encouraging as the blond probably hoped that it would be.

"Wonder blond! Mini Loki! Hurry it up!" Tony shouted from the doors. The billionaire was standing next to a woman dressed smartly in a suit, waving at them.

Harry made his feet move towards the Doom that was Macy's, peering up at Steve next to him. Thor and Loki were at their back.

"I have a question," Harry said quietly as they moved through the doors and into retail hell. Harry had never really been shopping for himself before, he'd gone with Petunia and Dudley a few times when Dudley burst out of his clothes, and there were the yearly trips to Diagon Alley, but this...this was different.

"Yeah, buddy?" Steve asked distractedly as they moved towards the escalator leading towards the upper floors. "I can't stop Tony, if that's what you're thinking. That man won't stop until he gets what he wants, I've learned from experience."

Harry shook his head, stepping carefully off the moving stairs and to the side, waiting for Thor and Loki to make their way up. The one thing that had been drilled into his head before they left Stark Tower that morning was that he was never, ever, to wander off on his own. And preferably he was to stay where all his...parents and uncle, along with Tony, were.

Gone were his days of wandering where and when he wanted to.

"Why don't I look like you?"

Steve froze at the question, staring down at him with wide blue eyes. He hadn't been expecting it. "What, Harry?"

"Why don't I look like you?" Harry repeated. It wasn't something that bothered him, he had looked like this all of his life after all, but after being told he was the spitting image of James Potter all his life, he couldn't help but be curious. He looked more like his uncle than he did his...parents.

Steve shook his head, hand back on his shoulder and steering him towards the 'boys' section. Tony was waiting in front of it, four employees waiting beside him. They were looking at Harry like he was a walking dollar sign, and Harry wanted to run back down the stairs. "I'm...honestly not sure." Steve said finally. He exchanged looks with Thor and Loki over the top of Harry's head, before smiling back down. "We'll talk about that back at the tower, okay? Right now, we have to get you clothes."

Harry gulped.

He thought he would much rather have the discussion.

* * *

><p>Thor watched absently as Steven and Du...Harry, his name was Harry now, moved through the racks in front of him. He had heard the boy's earlier question, how could not have? But he had no answers.<p>

Harry looked like a copy of Loki. An uncanny resemblance in fact. Thor couldn't deny that it worried him.

"Thor. Do stop being thicker than usual." Loki snorted, blocking his view of Harry and Steven and fixing him with a cool green stare.

'What do you mean, Loki?" Thor wasn't in the mood to play games, but going by Loki's smirk the younger god was.

"You worry needlessly. While my magic did have a hand in my nephews...creation, for lack of a better term, he is undoubtedly your child." Loki said, that same smirk playing around his lips. He found this funny, and Thor glared.

"I find it hard to believe, Loki. He is your mirror image."

"True." Loki did not deny the fact. He seemed amused by it more than anything.

"Perhaps..." Thor trailed off. He didn't want to say the words that were floating around in his head, but he had to. Hopefully, saying them would banish the thoughts. "Perhaps your magic made a mistake."

He knew as soon as the words escaped him that they were the wrong thing to say. Frigga had always said he spoke before he thought. Thor hated when she was right. . Loki glared at him, green eyes narrowed.

"My magic," the Trickster hissed, "Does not make mistakes. Even if you have no respect for me, have respect for your mortal, brother."

Thor nodded quickly, the edges of Loki's magic dancing along his skin. The hairs on his arms rose with the charge, and he knew the other god was getting close to the point of no return. The Thunderer was certain that Tony would appreciate the building being left in the same state that they five entered it in.

"I apologize brother, I should not have doubted you," Thor tried to choose his words carefully. "But..."

"Yes, I know." Loki said, anger flowing away as if it had never been. Thor knew better, he would pay for his comments, and probably very publically. "I know."

* * *

><p>The Headmaster felt a headache building behind his eyes, and he knew that the pain was only going to grow until he somehow managed to pacify the half dozen people who were in the room determined to be the one person that he listened to.<p>

"Albus, you must tell us where the boy is! Sirius Black broke into his home for Merlin's sake," Cornelius Fudge, current Minister of Magic and quite the largest pain of the Headmaster's at the moment, twisted his hat rim in his hands as he spoke. Sweat was beading at the short, round, man's temples. "Where ever you've stashed him away clearly won't be safe for long!"

"I quite agree with the Minister, Professor Dumbledore," Lucius Malfoy said slowly. His hand was wrapped around the snake head of his cane, and Albus kept a wary eye on it. He knew, everyone knew, that wasn't just a cane, and he wasn't going to be caught unawares in his own home. "Harry Potter deserves…" The Slytherin hesitated for a moment, trying to choose the right word, "protection. Surely, you don't think you can protect him away from Hogwarts as well as prepare for the new term?"

On the outside, the request was perfectly reasonable. Albus had more on his plate than he knew what to do with, and that was without keeping Harry safe.

"I'm quite sure, Lord Malfoy. Harry Potter is perfectly safe where he is, and will be returned in time for the new school year when it starts." He stood from behind his desk, Fawkes flying over to land on his shoulder with a shrill shriek (the phoenix had always had quite the flare for the dramatic), and surveyed those staring back at him. "As Harry's Magical Guardian, it is my responsibility to ensure his safety and I have. Now, if there is nothing else, I do have quite a large amount of work to be getting on with."

With much grumbling (and cursing), the room slowly began to disperse, leaving only the Minister to glare across the table. There was a fire to the small man that Albus wasn't used to seeing.

"Albus, I talked to the boy's relatives," Fudge said carefully, the fidgeting with his hat slowly coming to a stop. "They want him back, and you have no right to keep him from a family that loves him."

The Headmaster sighed. "Cornelius, I can assure you, Mr. Potter is perfectly safe and sound where he is. If he had been with the Dursley's, Sirius Black would have finished what he started twelve years ago." And Albus would believe those horrible muggles wanted Harry back as soon as Voldemort became a muggle lover. They wanted the money that the Potter Trust transferred to them every month. If he wasn't in their home, they were not entitled to the money. Greed was a powerful motivator.

Fudge shook his head. "Albus, he will be returned to them. Mr. Potter should be with family."

The short man said nothing else, turning on his heel and striding from the room, leaving Albus to stare at his back.

"That is not what I expected, Fawkes, not at all." He murmured to the bird still perched on his shoulder. The phoenix trilled once, the soaring phoenix song filling the office for a brief moment, before he quieted and began to preen Albus' hair.

* * *

><p>"Thor."<p>

The Asgardian Prince blinked his eyes open, and uncrossed his arms as he stared at the man now standing next to him. A quick check, reflex by this point, showed Harry being crowded by Tony and the almost army of workers jumping at the billionaire's words. Loki was standing at his back, and looking quite intimidating. Thor relaxed and smiled at Steve.

He knew that Loki wouldn't let anything happen to Harry…not again.

"Yes, Steven?"

Steven groaned and raked a hand back through his hair. It was disheveled, an indication of the many times he had done it in frustration (usually after yelling "Tony, NO! Harry does not need…."). "One of us needs to visit the Dursley's."

This was not a conversation that Thor wanted to have in public.

A quick look over Steven's shoulder to Loki gained him a nod, and Thor wrapped his arm around Steve's upper arm and began towing him towards the private fitting room Tony had immediately procured. Steven leaned against the wall as soon as his arm was released.

"Why?" Thor asked quietly. He didn't want to think of the other people who had raised his child for the last twelve years, it was a harsh reminder that Thor himself hadn't had that honor.

"Something isn't right, with Harry." Steve sighed, kicking absently at the pile of clothes at his feet, watching the fabric tumble. "they are having to dive into sizes for ten year olds, he's almost thirteen."

Thor didn't understand the importance placed on the ages, but nodded all the same. Clearly this was something that was bothering Steven. "You mentioned him being small, perhaps…" He trailed off, remembering Steve when they first met.

"Perhaps he's like me, how I used to be, you mean?" Steve laughed at himself.

Thor frowned. "That is not a bad thing, svass. You have always been…"

Steve shook his head, cutting the words off before Thor could speak them.

"This isn't about me, this is about Harry. We don't have any medical records, Dumbledore didn't tell us anything about how he grew up, and we need to know."

"Have you not asked Harry?" Thor asked quietly. He knew, even if Steve asked, Harry would likely not disclose the information they sought.

"I have, but he just gets angry. I don't know if he's mad at us, or if there's something else. Either way, we need to talk to them." Steve said, glaring at him. Thor shifted, thinking of the frozen wilds of Jotunheim to calm his body's reaction to that stare. Steve had always had heart larger than his form, it was only more enhanced now that his body matched. Thor had always been attracted to strength, even if it was not in his best interests.

There was a reason he was no longer chosen for the envoy to Alfheim after all.

"You wish to go yourself?"

Steve shook his head immediately, and bit his lip. Thor shifted and thought of Neflheim. It didn't help.

"I…want you to go." Steve said in a rush, "I..I don't want to be away from Harry, not yet. I can't help but think…"

Steve trailed off. Thor couldn't hold himself back anymore, and crossed the room. Steven was tense in his arms, but the Thunderer didn't care.

"You won't lose him again, Steven," Thor swore fiercely, "_We _won't lose him again. I swear to you."

Steve was quiet, but finally nodded against Thor's shoulder. This was the first time they had touched, truly touched without death and destruction flying around them, and Thor closed his eyes to enjoy it.

Tony and Loki were watching their son, they could take a few moments to themselves. Thor would take whatever he could get.

"I will take Loki with me," Thor finally decided. Steve gave him a strange look.

"Why?" he asked finally, when he couldn't see the answer written on Thor's face. "I know he's reformed or trying, but…"

"If they are hiding something, svass, my brother is the one who will find it." Thor said. A knock came at the door, and he could see that pointed toes of the shoes the lead 'sales clerk' that had been assisting them.

"Mr. Rogers? Mr. Odinson?" She said brightly, "Mr. Stark says that your son has everything he needs, for now, if the two of you are ready to move on."

"Are we ever," Steve muttered under his breath and moved back from Thor so he could reach the door. "Hopefully Tony has decided Harry has enough for the next year, though I doubt it."

Steve really hated shopping.

* * *

><p>"Come along, Diddums!" Petunia Dursley spoke loudly, pitching her voice to be heard in the house around them. It had been a long four days since that horrid Sirius Black broke in and threatened her family, and the neighbors hadn't stopped talking about it. The new car (Vernon was always bringing home a new car, perks of his lofty position in Grunnings Petunia expected) would hopefully give the neighbors something to be envious of instead of gossiping about. "If you hurry, I'll drive you and Piers to the store in Daddy's new car before we leave for Brighton."<p>

Dudley came striding from the house, her thirteen year old bundle of joy, with a bounce to his step. Her Diddums did always love spending time with his little friends.

"Mummy, can I have two floats?" Dudley asked as he climbed into the front seat, closing the door behind him but refusing to do up his safety belt. He hated how it made him feel, he always said, and Petunia couldn't bear to put her son in any sort of discomfort. Not her boy.

"Of course you can, Dudley."

Petunia put the car in reverse and began to back out, glancing over her shoulder. "Goodness!" She cried out, slamming on the breaks as a black (government) car pulled in the driveway behind her, blocking her in. Dudley flew forward, the jerk of the car enough to push him into the dashboard even though she had not been going that fast. He cried out as his nose crunched, and blood began spurting from it.

"Mummy!" Dudley sobbed, hands cupped under his face to catch the blood, and Petunia fluttered her hands around him. "Mummy it hurts!"

A sharp rapping on the glass of the car unfroze her, and she glared at the balding man in a sharp suit as she pushed the door open.

"What are you on about?" She berated him as she rounded the car and towed Dudley out. His face was covered in blood, but she couldn't see any obvious signs of a break. It had been a long time since her nurses training, but Petunia knew what a broken nose looked like. "Could you not see me backing out?"

The man held his left wrist in his right hand, completely unconcerned with her berating, and gave her a bland smile.

"I am sorry, Mrs. Dursley, but if your son had been wearing his seat belt per British Law, he would have been perfectly safe even with your application of the breaks." He said with a smile. American, Petunia sniffed to herself, no wonder he had no manners.

"Who are you? If you have business here, I would appreciate you getting it over with, I need to see to my son."

Dudley, always with a flair for the dramatic that even his parents couldn't always overlook, chose that moment to start sobbing louder and she wrapped an arm around him to pull him to her side.

"I am sorry, Mrs. Dursley, we shall make our visit as quick as possible. My name is Agent Sitwell, with The Strategic Homeland Intervention and Logistics Department, Shield. I have some…gentlemen, here, that have some questions to ask you, regarding your nephew. Harry Potter?"

Petunia backed up a step, towing Dudley with her, and shouted for Vernon.

* * *

><p>"Do remember to hold your temper, brother." Loki said softly, staring across the back of the car where Thor was hunched down, the top of his head brushing the roof of the car despite his best efforts. Loki held back his snickers, but it was a close thing.<p>

"Do you think I have cause to be upset?" Thor asked back, carefully. They were speaking Norse, and getting strange looks from the quiet man that had been chosen to accompany them and Agent Sitwell to the Dursley residence. The God of Thunder didn't care, he didn't want to be overheard.

Loki wasn't the only one with misgivings about this place.

"I think," Loki said softly, fixing him with a green eyed stare, "that you should think before you react. And remember, Harry is safe with Steven, away from here."

"We're here, Thor, Loki." The door opened, Sitwell stepping to the side and allowing the two princes to climb out, "I will remind you that MI6 allowed you onto their turf as a favor, so please do not start any international incidents or… intergalactic incidents." His eyes landed on Loki, and the trickster merely smiled "for that matter. This is a normal neighborhood, and we should leave it that way. Keep that in mind gentlemen."

Thor nodded, he would do anything to get the answers they needed. .

Sitwell looked at him seriously for a few moments, before turning on his heel and marching towards the closest house, Number Four Privet Drive. A blonde housewife, dressed in pearls and a dress that wouldn't have looked out of place seventy years ago, stood with a rather… large boy of about thirteen, blood caked around his nose and large tears running down his face. Thor made a face. It was a paltry injury, even one of his young years should be able to accept it with better grace. The Crown Prince allowed himself a single grimace of distaste, before he buried it behind a stoic mask. Tony jokingly called it the 'Prince Thor' look, but Thor never laughed at the joke.

"Mrs. Dursley?" Agent Sitwell took the lead, plastering a bland smile on his face and heading towards the woman. He showed no reaction to the child, though it was impossible to miss him. "These are the gentlemen I told you about, if you answer our questions quickly, we'll be out of your way as soon as possible."

The door to Number Four Privet Drive opened and closed with a large bang, and Thor reached for his hammer out of reflex as the large, very large, man headed towards the group gathered around his family. Loki snorted softly next to him, and Thor bit back the smirk.

"Rather reminds you of Jarl Ulfric, doesn't he," Loki said, amusement in his tone, "that same sense of self importance."

"Same love of food as well."

"Mummy!" The large child spoke, his words slightly muffled by his bruised nose, "Why are they asking about the Freak?"

Petunia and Vernon busied themselves soothing their child, not noticing the dark looks that passed over the faces of the three men standing around them.

"Loki, is Freak a common name for children on Midgard?" Thor leaned towards his brother, scanning their surroundings and cataloging everything he was seeing. Loki just shook his head slowly, a frown on his face.

"I do not believe so, Thor." Loki said softly, "No more than…" He cut himself off. Thor winced, he knew what his brother was remembering.

"I hope you've come to return the B…our darling nephew back to us," Vernon Dursley finally said, sending his wife and child into the house as he stared at Thor, Loki, and Agent Sitwell in a pitiful attempt at intimidation. "We have been worried sick about him."

"I doubt that, mortal." Loki said, viciously. Thor blinked, and Sitwell reached for the gun holstered underneath his suit jacket.

"Why don't we take this inside, gentlemen," Jasper said quietly. Vernon tried to bluster, but he was no match for Phil Coulson's successor and they soon found themselves sitting in a flowery living room, surrounded by doilies and small figurines.

"Where is my nephew," Vernon asked again, the large mustache under his nose quivering as he spoke, "no one had our permission to take him, I will have you all charged with kidnapping."

Loki snorted, and leaned forward. Resting his elbows on his knees, Loki plastered a sympathetic smile on his face.

"We've heard how much trouble the boy is," The word choice got a jerk out of Vernon, a suspicious look in his eyes, but he wasn't smart enough to outwit Loki Silvertongue when he was determined to get information. "how much grief he has caused you over the years that you have taken him in, out of the goodness of your hearts I am sure."

Thor listened with half an ear, eyes raking over the pictures and knickknacks that lined the walls. There were no pictures of Harry, anywhere that the thunderer could see. His son had spent eleven years, eleven long years, in this home, but there was no trace of him.

Unease trickled at the back of Thor's neck, and he couldn't stay silently here. He had to move. Loki was the talker, the one who was content to trap people in their own words and watch them writhe. Thor had to be moving, had to be active, and this was no exception. He stood abruptly, murmuring something about the restroom, and Loki called the mortal's attention back to himself without much trouble.

Thor could hear the woman and the child in the kitchen, the large boy's whines being placated by sweets and promises of cake and cookies after dinner. Thor made a disgusted face and turned to climb the stairs.

The five doors in the hallway were lined up, and a quick peek into the first two showed a guest room and the Master bedroom. The next was a small bathroom, done in a nausea inducing pink color, followed closely by a room that could only belong to the annoying child downstairs.

That left the last door as Harry's. Thor clenched his fists, thunder booming overhead, as he saw the locks on the door. The flap at the bottom, clearly meant for food to be passed through, made him see red. He didn't open the door, he couldn't open the door if he wanted to hold on to the small thread of his temper than he still had control of.

He turned and slowly made his way down the stairs. A picture was beginning to form in his mind, and he didn't like what he was beginning to see. Loki was waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs, a dark look on his face as he stared at the open cupboard under the stairs. Thor could hear the yells of Dursley male coming from the living room, Jasper's normally soft voice screaming back at him in outrage.

"I believe we know why Harry is small." Loki said quietly, his arms wrapped around himself as he stared inside the small room. The tattered mattress, along with the hand drawn pictures on the wall and the small grouping of clearly treasured (and clearly broken) toys on the small shelf mixed in between cleaning fluids and dirt, solidified the picture in Thor's mind.

"He is never coming back here." Loki said, redundantly. Thor only nodded. Jasper's foosteps, along with the ever rising voice of Vernon Dursley, came up behind them, and the Prince of Asgard turned to glare down at the mortal that had dared treat his son like a burden, like an animal.

"No, he is not." Thor said softly, and Vernon pulled himself up into what he thought was an intimidating height.

"Now see here! I don't…"

Thor held up a hand, thunder booming overhead, and Loki pulled a dagger out from wherever he hid them, Thor had never figured it out.

"Even if he were not my son, I would not leave any child here to be berated and treated as less than human by you, Dursley." The name was like tar on his tongue. "Loki, take Jasper and go, I will have words with my son's previous guardians."

Loki nodded, grabbed Sitwell by the upper arm, and towed him outside. It was only a few moments before Thor stepped outside the door again. The thunder boomed louder as the good looked up at the sky with a look of concentration on his face before stepping away.

And then it happened.

A bolt of lightning came shooting out of the sky, so bright that everyone watching had to look away, impacting Number Four Privet Drive with a loud snap and a boom of thunder that shook the very ground underneath them. With a scream, Petunia and Dudley, followed quickly by a yelling Vernon, came running out of the house just as the roof caught on fire, the house going up quickly in flames.

People streamed from neighboring homes, pointing and calling to each other as the house burned and Petunia continued to scream.

Thor ushered them towards the government car, a satisfied look on his face as Loki and Sitwell stared at him with open mouths and shocked faces.

Sitwell finally got his wits about him and glared at the god who was the closing the car door behind all of them.

"Thor. What part of not causing an intergalactic incident did you not understand?"


	7. Chapter 7

**AN-Thank you for all the amazing reviews! **

**This chapter is a little scattered, as I'm getting to the end of what I have fully plotted out, but a lot happens and there's drama (and teenage angst)...and Tony being Tony. Watch out for the cliff hanger at the end!**

**Disclaimer-I still own nothing. No copyright infringement is intended nor implied. No profit of any kind is being made on this work. **

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Seven<strong>

The wand was cool in his hands, the wood rougher than he was used to. It wasn't his wand, but it was a wand.

He was one step closer to getting to Harry. Sirius looked down at the man lying…asleep, in the middle of Rome's Wizarding District, and felt a moment of pity before he squashed it down. The man would wake up, with a headache and missing a wand, but he would be okay.

And Sirius would be long gone.

The fugitive took a deep breath, and centered himself. Already the wand in his hand was fighting him, the piece of wood only vaguely similar to his own ebony and hippogriph, but it would suit his purposes. A quick half turn and he was gone, leaving nothing behind but an empty street.

He reappeared, disoriented and shaken, in the middle of a crowded street and panicked. He hadn't expected to be seen, and there were dozens of eyes on him, so he bolted. His feet took him through pedestrians, and around cars that seemed to be at a standstill, ignoring the honking and screams that followed his daredevil dive into a shadowed alley. Ducking behind a dumpster, not even registered the smell, Sirius kicked the borrowed wand underneath a pile of trash, and forced his body into the well-known shape of Padfoot. The dog shook himself, settling the magic more securely around his form, and giving a doggy smile at the two police offers that walked into the alleyway with their weapons drawn. One of them gave him a smile and a quick pat, before coughing and regaining his stern demeanor after a dark look from his partner.

Well, the Ministry would know he was in America soon now, but it didn't matter.

He was one step closer to Harry.

* * *

><p>Harry stared at the small screen in his hands. Mr. Stark (Call me Tony, kid, Mr. Stark was my father, and I'm not that old yet!) smiled at him from across the table.<p>

"Go ahead, try it out!" Tony encouraged. He tucked his hands into his jean pockets and leaned back. Harry frowned down at it, and gave it an experimental poke.

The screen stayed black.

Harry poked it again, but the screen stubbornly refused to respond to him. Harry looked up at him, biting his bottom lip.

Tony smirked at him, "Okay, now I believe you're Steve's kid." The billionaire engineer reached across the table and snagged the tablet out of Harry's hand, pressing a button at the bottom of the screen before he slid it back across the table.

It was brightly lit, a picture of Thor and Steve looked at a sleeping Harry replacing the blank screen. Harry blushed. He didn't remember that picture, but by the scattered bits of Monopoly he could see edging the bottom of the screen, he knew when it was taken. That didn't make it any less embarrassing though.

"How did you?" Harry asked, turning the screen over and over in his hands, and Tony sighed.

"Yeah, just like your dad." Tony stood and walked around the table, dragging his chair behind him, until he could sit next to Harry with his arms over the back and point at the buttons of the front of the tablet. "That bottom one wakes the screen up, so you can see. The one, no, not that one the other one, on the side is your power button, and the ones right below it are volume."

Harry listened with half an ear as Tony explained, wondering to himself if it was worth listening to. It wasn't like this was anything that he could take back to Hogwarts, and he would probably forget it all by the time he got back from the year.

"Hey, kid, are you listening to me?" Tony thumped him carefully on the forehead and Harry blinked. "I can tell you're spacing out, Steve does the same thing when he's trying not to listen to me babble."

Harry blinked. "Sorry, just wondering if this is worth it." It wasn't what Harry had meant to say, but he had never had really good control over his mouth.

"If this is….if this is worth it," Tony's mouth opened and closed repeatedly, and Harry bit back a giggle. For a man who seemed to think that technology was the best thing since sliced bread, hearing that it might not be worth it to learn was like hitting him over the head with a brick.

Or Harry thought so, anyway.

"What do you mean if this is worth it?" Tony finally spat out, and Harry laughed.

"Technology doesn't work around large amounts of magic." Harry pushed himself to his feet, and grimaced as he used his left arm too much and it gave the customary twinge.

That was beginning to get on his nerves.

"You're losing me, kid." Tony stood with him, pacing next to him as they headed back towards the elevator at the end of the common room. All Harry wanted to do, now, was crawl back into bed and go back to sleep. Maybe when he woke up, it would stop hurting and he would be able to get back to his life. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Harry blinked, hitting the button for Steve's floor, and wincing as the doors closed around them. He didn't like enclosed spaces, not since his slide down the tunnel of fun into the Chamber of Secrets. "It won't work at Hogwarts, and I doubt the Dursley's will let me use any of it when I'm back with them." Harry shrugged, "so I don't know if it's worth it."

"God, why do I always have to deal with this stuff?" Tony muttered under his breath, before he reached out and hit the 'stop' button. The elevator jerked, and Harry bit back a curse as he was jolted and almost fell.

"Did you have to do that?" He snapped, his heart thudding in his chest as he tried to keep himself on his feet. Tony just leaned against the wall and stared at him.

"You need to talk to Steve and Thor," Tony said finally, when Harry got his heart rate under control and felt like he wasn't going to throw up if he looked at the walls one more time. "Soon."

"Why?"

"Kid," Tony raked a hand back through his hair, and stared at him. It was one of the first times Harry could remember seeing Tony this serious, normally the man was like a four year old hyped up on sugar. It was unnerving. "I know you haven't fully accepted this whole thing, and I don't blame you. It's gotta be tough, learning everything you thought about your family is a lie. But, I can tell you this…"

Harry swallowed heavily, he had a feeling he wasn't going to like what was going to come next.

"Now that Steve and Thor have you? I don't see them letting you go." Tony finished, before pressing the button and sending the elevator into movement again.

Harry sighed. He'd been afraid of that.

"Are you getting off?" Harry motioned towards the door that was now open but Tony shook his head.

"Sorry kid, this is a discussion you need to have by yourself. I'm heading to the lab."

The doors slid closed behind him, and Harry sighed. The living room was empty, and the Boy Who Lived flopped down on the couch with a grunt.

He liked it here, he didn't like that he did, but he did.

But that didn't mean he didn't want to go back to Hogwarts.

Hogwarts was home, the only home he'd ever known. Even if he hadn't left his friends on the…best of terms, but that didn't mean he never wanted to see them again.

But from what he knew about Steve and Thor? His…parents? They weren't the type to let go easily and having Harry away for eight months out of the year would probably be a bit too much.

Harry had no idea what he was going to do.

The doors dinged open behind him again, and he craned his neck to look over the back of the couch. Steve was standing there, breathing heavy, and sweating. Harry wrinkled his nose. He didn't get the appeal of working out like Steve seemed to enjoy, but then again, he had never had the chance. It wasn't like Hogwarts and the Dursleys were the greatest advocates of physical fitness.

"Hey buddy," Steve said brightly, and Harry only rolled his eyes a little bit at the customary feel of the blond raking his eyes over Harry from head to toe to make sure that he was alright. It had quickly become commonplace since Harry stepped foot into the tower, and it wasn't even worth fighting over anymore. "I thought you were spending the day with Tony in his lab?"

Steve sank onto the couch beside him, and Harry shook his head. "Yeah, I don't think it went as well as he thought it would." Harry felt the frustration flowing back over him, "Why are there so many buttons?"

Steve laughed. "I don't know, Harry, I asked the same question." Steve's sharp blue eyes stared at the side of Harry's head, and Harry fought the urge to squirm. "But I don't think that's what brought you out of his lair so soon. Tony never gives up some something unless he has a very good reason to. What's going on in that head of yours?" His hand came out to ruffle Harry's hair, but the Boy Who Lived moved out of the way on instinct. Steve let his hand drop without comment, but Harry could tell he was disappointed.

"I was just thinking," Harry started, turning himself on the couch and pulling his knees up to his chest so he could look at Steve head on, "What's going to happen when term starts? I haven't gotten my letter or school list."

Harry couldn't bring himself to ask if he was going back, he didn't want to hear the answer, but Steve read between the lines anyway. He sighed, and fixed Harry with a blue eyed stare.

"Harry…." Steve raked a hand back through his sweaty hair, grimacing at the wet strands. "That's…complicated buddy."

"So, Tony was right." Harry said quietly. Steve gave him a sharp look.

"Tony was right about what?" the captain asked quietly, but with steel behind the words. Harry blinked. The Boy who Lived had the feeling that he had just stepped into something.

"You're not going to let me go back to Hogwarts."

Steve said nothing, just leaned forward and hung his hands between his knees, staring at the TV that was on but muted.

"You're not going to say anything? You don't think I deserve an answer?" Harry asked fiercely. He wasn't yelling, though everything in him wanted to, but he had to know. He was tired of people making decisions for him all the time. It was his life, didn't he deserve to have some kind of input?

"Harry, it's not that simple. Thor and I haven't decided, and we're not going to without talking to you first," he sighed and sat back up, "but there are things going on that you don't understand right now."

"Then explain them to me!" Harry shot back. "I can't understand if no one tells me anything!"

"Harry, I can't right now, but I promise you buddy I will when I can." Steve tried again, even giving Harry a weak smile, but Harry just shook his head.

"No one ever tells me anything. It's my life, it should be my decision." Harry left the room without waiting for a reply, leaving Steve staring at the floor in silence.

* * *

><p>Steve felt eyes on the back of his head, and turned slowly to stare at the elevator. Natasha stared back at him, hair pulled back in a simple ponytail, dressed in sweats.<p>

"How much did you hear?" He asked, resigned. He had tried to keep the spies away from Harry as long as he could. He trusted them, both of them, but he didn't want to push too much onto his son too quickly.

At least, that's what he told himself.

"All of it. Don't worry," She padded across the floor and sank onto the couch next to him, taking up a pose eerily similar to what Harry had taken moments before. "I'm not going to tell S.H.I.E.L.D about him being here already."

Steve blinked. "You're not?"

Natasha shook her head slowly. "No. I'm not. You'll tell Fury when you're ready, and Harry doesn't need that on his head right now." She smiled, "Though I hope you'll formally introduce Clint and I to him soon, Clint is anxious to have someone new to play games with."

Steve couldn't help himself, he snorted. "I bet he does, Tony won't play with him anymore, after the twelfth time he cheated." Natasha didn't deny it, and Steve filed that away. If Clint was cheating and Natasha knew, it was likely she cheated as well.

That or she just loved screwing with all of them. Either or, it was a tossup.

"Why are you here, Natasha? I thought you were still in Budapest."

She flinched at the word, but regained her calm quickly. Steve was surprised that she had let him see that much. "We finished up sooner than we thought, clearing out the last of Coulson's safe houses. Clint stayed behind, he needed a few days."

Steve nodded and climbed to his feet. The lack of shower was getting to him. "'Tasha, I'm going to…" He trailed off, eyes drawn to the TV that he had been ignoring. "Jarvis, volume up please."

On screen, a reporter was standing in what seemed like the center of Times Square

His voice was cold, and Natasha jumped silently to her feet, daggers held in her hands, though there were no obvious places for her to be hiding them. "Steve, what is it?"

"I need you to stay here with Harry, Natasha. Don't let anyone on or off this floor until I'm back." Steve crossed the floor and picked up the shield where it lay propped against the wall, sliding it onto his back and heading towards the elevator. He didn't have his uniform, but that didn't matter.

"Steve! What is going on." Natasha slid in front of him on socked feet, and it wasn't a question. He glared at her, trying to breath through the rage that was flooding his body. He had never been this angry, not even when Zola was trying to destroy everything he held dear.

"Sirius Black is in New York, Widow," He said, and her back straightened. "He tried to kill Harry once, I'm not letting it happen again. I need you to protect my son."

She nodded once, and got out of his way.

"You have my word, Captain. I'll keep him safe."

* * *

><p>"Minister, I'm not sure I am comfortable with these proceedings." Amelia Bones leaned back in her chair and fixed her superior with a glare. The small man fidgeted but didn't back down like he normally would.<p>

"Whether you are comfortable or not with the situation is not the matter under discussion here, Auror Bones." Fudge snapped, and Amelia straightened. It had been a long time since someone called her an Auror, and she didn't appreciate the demotion, even if it was only verbal.

"It is my concern, Minister, when the situation at hand goes against Ministry Law." She said very clearly. When this came back and bit them all, and she knew it would, she wanted it on record that she was against this farce and tried to stop it. Amelia couldn't refuse the Minister, no matter how idiotic he was being. "Headmaster Dumbledore is on record as Harry Potter's Magical Guardian, and as such as the right to decide where his placement lies."

The Minister smiled, and it wasn't a nice smile. "That is true, my dear Amelia. However, according to the Muggle Government, Mr. Potter's guardians are the Dursleys, and as he is not in the Magical World or considered a full citizen until he is of age…."

The minister trailed off and Amelia cursed.

"That is positively archaic, Cornelius. Mr. Potter deserves every bit of protection we can give him, and if you remember, Sirius Black already found his relatives once." She said as calmly as she could, but her hands shook where she hid them under the table. Fudge just waved a hand.

"That's what makes it perfect, my dear Amelia," some of the Minister's jovial attitude was coming back as he smelled her blood in the air. He knew she was beaten, "No one, especially not Sirius Black, would think to look there again! It's a foolproof plan to keep our savior safe." He climbed to his feet, sticking his top hat on to his head and smiling at her. "I'll expect your best Aurors in my office in the next ten minutes." He moved towards the door as she stared after him.

As he pulled it open, he stared back at her over his shoulder. "And Amelia? Don't try to tell Albus about this, this is none of his concern."

The door shut with a snap, leaving Amelia with no other choice than to do as she was told. She didn't have time to contact Albus and get him to stop this whole charade, and she thought, almost frightened, that Fudge was waiting for her to do exactly that.

* * *

><p>Thor leaned his head against the elevator wall behind him, the cell phone that the Son of Stark had shoved in his hand as they left the tower before ringing merrily away. He ignored it, as he had done since he landed on the plane.<p>

In retrospect, giving the number to Jane hadn't been the wisest course of action. She had been quite upset that she hadn't let him know the minute he arrived back on Midgard, screaming that two years was not acceptable behavior.

Telling her about Steven and Harry had been even less wise.

Loki snorted as the phone cut off, only to immediately start ringing again. Thor scowled at him, but otherwise ignored it.

He was too weary to do anything else.

"You must decide between them, brother," Loki said softly. "If only for Harry's sake."

Thor nodded, rubbed a hand over his face. He knew that, he had known that since discovering the ones he loved were not dead as he thought, but that didn't make things any easier. "I know, Loki, I know."

The elevator slowed as they reached the 87th floor, the floor set aside for Steven, and then Harry and Thor and Loki by default, and both Asgardians stepped off, expecting time to wind down before tackling what they had learned with the other members of their rapidly expanding family.

It wasn't to be. Loki nearly tripped over the downed Black Widow as he stepped into the hall, and immediately went on the defensive. Mjolnir was in Thor's hand before he consciously thought, and he swung the hammer once.

"She lives, but barely." Loki said, looking up from where he crouched next to the Widow's head. His hand glowed green with power as he hovered it over her, "who ever came here did not mean to leave her alive."

Thor growled and headed further into the apartment, eyes scanning the overturned furniture and the scorch marks on the wall. "Jarvis!" The Prince called, his voice coming out in a low growl.

There was no answer.

"There is magic involved here, Thor." Loki came up behind him, the Widow groggily leaning on him as she tried to clear her head. It was the most weakness that Thor had ever seen her show, and that she showed it around someone she should have thought was an enemy made his heart sing. Perhaps Loki would be accepted here, sooner rather than later.

"Harry," The Widow gasped out, her face ashen as she tried to stand from where she leaned o~ Loki, "they were after Harry."

Thor didn't remember moving, until he was standing in his son's room, staring at the broken door and the clear signs of a struggle. Thunder began to roll outside, rain pouring down from what used to be a clear night sky. Lightening lit up the room as the God of Thunder let his anger rage.

They had taken his child. Again.

"Who dared?" Thor asked quietly, muscles in his arms flexing as he fought to keep control, "Who. Dared."

"Wizards," Natasha coughed, leaning on the doorway, "said they were returning him to his family." Color was rapidly returning to her face, and murder was in her eyes. The Black Widow wanted revenge. "I promised Steve I would keep him safe. I failed."

She offered no excuse, but Thor waved it away anyway. She had fought to the end, almost at the cost of her own life. He couldn't ask for more.

The mere thought of his son being back in the hands of those monsters made the thunder crash louder. The sound of lightening impacting with a building could be heard in the distance, but Thor didn't care.

No one was taking his son away again.

"Thor," Loki called from behind him, and Thor half turned. He was met with the sight of his brother in full battle gear, helmet under his arm and staff in hand. "I shall find Harry, you must find your Captain."

Thor hesitated, hovering between the need to ride to his child's rescue and informing Steven.

"I will find him, Thor." Loki stared at him, and Thor nodded.

"We will follow as soon as I have found Steven."

Loki donned his helmet, and closed his eyes. Thor felt the familiar energy of Loki working a trick, and wasn't surprised when the younger god faded from view. Natasha, other than a slight widening of her eyes, did not react.

"I'm coming with you." The Black Widow said quietly, and Thor just nodded. He couldn't waste any more time with petty matters.

"Then you best be able to keep up."

* * *

><p>Harry pulled against the grip of the wizard holding his arm, to no avail. The man didn't even glance down at him, just tightened his hand and pulled Harry along faster. Stark Tower was rapidly disappearing into the darkness behind them, and Harry had never thought that he would be sorry to leave it behind.<p>

"Stop squirming, Mr. Potter. You'll be home with your family soon enough. I'm sorry it took so long to find you, lad." The fat man that seemed to be in charge, Harry hadn't caught his name, smiled down at him. Harry didn't smile back, and continued to pull away.

Harry was cold, and his feet hurt, and he just wanted to be somewhere where he could sleep.

That place was back in Stark Tower, and as far away from the Dursley family as he could possibly get.

"I don't want to go back there!" The mere thought of going back to the Dursleys made his heart begin to race. They weren't going to be happy with any of this, especially not him being returned by more wizards. The man just shook his head, that same sickly smile on his face.

"Nonsense, my boy, none of this is your fault and they are quiet excited to have you home."

Harry blanched. "You…you talked to them?" He asked shakily. "They want me back?"

If they wanted him back, he doubly didn't want to go. Nothing good ever came of the Dursleys wanting him around.

"Of course they do, Mr. Potter! They are quite worried about you! I'm not sure what horrible lies those muggles told you, but your family does still love you and want you back."

The man holding him grunted, and pulled him along even faster. Harry didn't know why they weren't apparating, but assumed it was to keep from being seen.

Harry began to hope that Steve and Thor would find him, soon, and that was something that he had never thought he would think.

"You have erred greatly, mortals."

Harry couldn't help the relieved smile at the voice. The strange little entourage stopped, in the back of a dark alley off the streets of Manhattan, and stared at the man standing in front of them. Harry didn't recognize the outfit he was wearing but he recognized the man.

"Uncle Loki."

Loki bared his teeth at the Wizards surrounding Harry and pointed his scepter.

"I shall give you one warning, release him."


End file.
